[此试题无题干]
From Accountant to Yogi: Making a Radical Career Change[A] At some point, almost all of us will experience a period of radical professional change. Some of us will seek it out; for others it will feel like an unwelcome intrusion into otherwise stable careers. Either way, we have choices about how we respond to it when it comes.[B] We recently caught up with yoga entrepreneur Leah Zaccaria, who put herself through the fire of change to completely reinvent herself. In her search to live a life of purpose, Leah left her high-paying accounting job, her husband, and her home. In the process, she built a radically new life and career. Since then, she has founded two yoga studios, met a new life partner, and formed a new community of people. Even if your personal reinvention is less drastic, we think there are lessons from her experience that apply.[C] Where do the seeds of change come from? The Native American Indians have a saying: "Pay attention to the whispers so you won't have to hear the screams." Often the best ideas for big changes come from unexpected places—it's just a matter of tuning in. Great leaders recognize the weak signals or slight signs that point to big changes to come. Leah reflects on a time she listened to the whispers; "About the time my daughter was five years old, I started having a sense that 'this isn't right'. "She then realized that her life no longer matched her vision for it.[D] Up until that point, Leah had followed traditional measures of success. After graduating with a degree in business and accounting, she joined a public accounting firm, married, bought a house, put lots of stuff in it, and had a baby. "I did what everybody else thought looked successful," she says. Leah easily could have fallen into a trap of feeling content; instead, her energy sparked a period of experimentation and renewal.[E] Feeling the need to change, Leah started playing with future possibilities by exploring her interests and developing new capabilities. First trying physical exercise and dieting, she lost some weight and discovered an inner strength. "I felt powerful because I broke through my own limitations," she recalls.[F] However, it was another interest that led Leah to radically reinvent herself. "I remember sitting on a bench with my aunt at a yoga studio," she said, "and having a moment of clarity right then and there; Yoga is saving my life. Yoga is waking me up. I'm not happy and I want to change and I'm done with this. " In that moment of clarity Leah made an important leap, conquering her inner resistance to change and making a firm commitment to take bigger steps.[G] Creating the future you want is a lot easier if you are ready to exploit the opportunities that come your way. When Leah made the commitment to change, she primed herself to new opportunities she may otherwise have overlooked. She recalls:[H] One day a man I worked with, Ryan, who had his office next to mine, said, " Leah, let's go look at this space on Queen Anne. " He knew my love for yoga and had seen a space close to where he lived that he thought might be good to serve as a yoga studio. As soon as I saw the location, I knew this was it. Of course I was scared, yet I had this strong sense of "I have to do this". Only a few months later Leah opened her first yoga studio, but success was not instant.[I] Creating the future takes time. That's why leaders continue to manage the present while building toward the big changes of the future. When it's time to make the leap, they take action and immediately drop what's no longer serving their purpose. Initially Leah stayed with her accounting job while starting up the yoga studio to make it all work.[J] Soon after, she knew she had to make a bold move to fully commit to her new future. Within two years, Leah shed the safety of her accounting job and made the switch complete. Such drastic change is not easy.[K] Steering through change and facing obstacles brings us face to face with our fears. Leah reflects on one incident that triggered her fears, when her investors threatened to shut her down: "I was probably up against the most fear I've ever had," she says. "I had spent two years cultivating this community, and it had become successful very fast, but within six months I was facing the prospect of losing it all."[L] She connected with her sense of purpose and dug deep, cultivating a tremendous sense of strength. " I was feeling so intentional and strong that I wasn't going to let fear just take over. I was thinking, 'OK, guys, if you want to try to shut me down, shut me down. 'And I knew it was a negotiation scheme, so I was able to say to myself, 'This is not real.'"By naming her fears and facing them head-on, Leah gained confidence. For most of us, letting go of the safety and security of the past gives us great fear. Calling out our fears explicitly, as Leah did, can help us act decisively.[M] The cycle of renewal never ends. Leah's growth spurred her to open her second studio—and it wasn't for the money.[N] I have no desire to make millions of dollars. It's not about that; it's about growth for me. Honestly, I didn't need to open a second studio. I was making as much money as I was as an accountant. But I know if you don't grow, you stand still, and that doesn't work for me.[O] Consider the current moment in your own life, your team or your organization. Where are you in the cycle of renewal; Are you actively preserving the present, or selectively forgetting the past, or boldly creating the future? What advice would Leah give you to move you ahead on your journey? Once we're on the path of growth, we can continually move through the seasons of transformation and renewal.
[此试题无题干]
国画
(Chinese painting)是世界上最古老的艺术传统之一。绘画时用毛笔蘸黑墨或彩墨在纸张或丝绸上作画。根据表现手法,国画可分为
写意派
(the Xieyi school)和
工笔派
(the Gongbi school)两大类。写意派以自由表达和形式夸张为特点;工笔派则注重以精细的笔法描绘细节。山水画被公认为国画的最高形式。纵观历史,不同时期的国画都相应地反映出人们的社会意识。
2010年世界博览会(World Expo 2010)于5月1日至10月31日在中国上海举行。世博会吸引了190个国家和56个国际组织参展。超过7300万中外游客参观了世博园,参观人数是历届世博会中最多的一次。这届世博会的主题是“城市,让生活更美好”(Better City,Better Life),体现了人类对更适宜居住环境、更美好生活的愿望。在世博园里所有的展馆(pavilion)中,中国展馆是最受欢迎的场馆之一。
{{B}}Section A{{/B}}
[此试题无题干]
BPart II Listening Comprehension/B
Should College Students Be Involved in Business Activities? 1.现在有许多大学生参与商业活动 2.对大学生是否应该参与商业活动有许多说法 3.我的看法
众所周知,吸烟不仅有害我们的健康,对环境也不利。吸烟能引起许多疾病,如肺癌(lung cancer)。吸烟也会影响不吸烟的人。被动吸烟者(passive smokers)生病的几率甚至高于吸烟者。有些年轻人认为吸烟很酷,有些人则认为吸烟能提神。如今,越来越多的公共场合挂起了禁止吸烟的标志。这是我们取得的巨大进步。为了我们的健康,我们需要做出更大的努力,禁止人们在公共场所吸烟。
丝绸之路
(the Silk Road)是中国古代的一条
商业贸易路线
(trade route)。丝绸之路以古代中国的政治、经济、文化中心——古都长安为起点,一直延伸至中亚、北非和欧洲。它最初的作用是出口中国生产的丝绸。随着时间的推移,丝绸之路逐渐变成了一条连接东西方的主要道路,促进了东西方的经济文化交流。后来,有学者把所有沟通中西方的商路统称为丝绸之路。
{{B}}Part II Listening Comprehension{{/B}}
中国的茶文化可以追溯到
周朝
(the Zhou Dynasty),约有4000年的历史。“一日三餐茶饭”成为中国人的一种日常习惯。有客人来访时.通常递上的也是一杯茶。饮茶在中国既是一种艺术也是一门学问。在中国的许多地方,沏茶的方法很复杂。中国茶叶以独特的色、香、味、形而闻名于世。在中国各种茶叶中,最著名的是绿茶、红茶、
乌龙茶
(oolong tea)和
花茶
(scented tea)。
[此试题无题干]
舞狮
(lion dance)是中国的一种传统舞蹈形式,在重大节日和隆重活动中经常可以看到。舞狮起源于
三国时期
(the Three Kingdoms Period),至今已有1000多年的历史。舞狮一般由两人表演,一人舞狮头,另一人舞狮身和狮尾。表演者在
锣鼓
(gongs and drums)音乐的伴奏下,表演狮子的各种动作。舞狮随着华人移居海外而闻名世界,尤其是在东南亚国家,但每一个国家和地区都有自己的舞狮风格。
[此试题无题干]
NottoBeSnobbishForthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessaybasedonthePicturebelow.Youshouldstartyouressaywithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandthencommentonclassreunion.Youshouldwriteatleast,120wordsbutnomorethan180words.
BPart II Listening Comprehension/B
[此试题无题干]
What Your iPad Knows About You[A] You've finally finished the book your co-worker recommended, so what to read next? If it is 5 a,m., chances are that you're reaching for a romance novel—especially if you're in Texas or Georgia. By early morning, thrillers might start to look more appealing. And if Philip K. Dick is your favorite author, books about beer are probably more up your taste than anything about wine or liquor.[B] These are some of the insights from Scribd Inc. and Oyster, two startups that offer unlimited e-book rentals for a monthly subscription fee. Scribd, Oyster and Entitle Books—which just launched in December—are tracking reader behavior in hopes of figuring out recommendations of exactly what you'll want to pick up next.[C] About 50% of the U.S. population owns a dedicated e-reader, according to a Pew Research study released last month. In addition, 28% read an e-book last year, up from 23% the previous year. The services are expanding. Scribd, a San Francisco-based site that started selling monthly e-book subscriptions last October, announced this month that its app is available on Amazon's Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite. After running exclusively on Apple's operating system, New York-based Oyster plans to expand to Android later this year. And Entitle is considering adding an all-you-can-read feature to complement its current "book of the month"-style subscription service. Subscription services are popular because they "reduce the emotional burden" of purchasing, says Julie Haddon, Scribd vice president of marketing. Buying a book creates pressure to finish and get your money's worth, she adds. In addition, people might try to save money by buying a cheaper book instead of the one they really want.[D] Brian Konash, 34, who works at Web startup Squarespace in Manhattan, joined Oyster two months ago because it didn't cause the buyers' sense of guilty he experienced when purchasing Kindle e-books. "You've already paid for the service, so you can read as much as you want," he says. "With other models, there's that little financial bite each time you want to buy a book and you worry that it's going to be worthless." Mr. Konash, who has been picking books based on the site's suggestions, predicts he'll read up to 10 more books a year beyond his usual 25.[E] An all-access subscription "lowers the activation energy for reading," says Oyster CEO Eric Stromberg. Reading often has a high "activation energy" because there's a time gap between wanting to read a book and then actually getting your hands on it, he says. "When you can order a book and instantly get it on your tablet, you can hear about the book and then read it right there," says Willem van Lancker, Oyster's chief product officer.[F] "From the publishing perspective, the biggest problem is how to get people to care about a new book," says Otis Chandler, CEO of Goodreads, a site where people share what they're reading and post recommendations. Goodreads, which was acquired by Amazon in March, uses an algorithm (运算法则 ) that recommends books that users with similar taste have enjoyed.[G] Oyster and Scribd ask readers to rate books, what they call an "active signal." They also track "passive signals," such as the percentage of a book that a reader finishes and the click rate, or how many people who are shown a book click through to learn more. The companies use that information among other factors to recommend books. Active signals represent what we wish we read, while passive signals are more honest, says Jared Friedman, Scribd chief technology officer. A lot of people give a 5-star rating to "The Great Gatsby," while they read greedily, but don't necessarily rate, thrillers like "The Da Vinci Code," for example.[H] Other findings: Self-help might be a popular market, yet only about 20% of people who start such a book finish it. More than 80% of people who crack the pages of a mystery novel will find out who did it. People read through biographies at 20 pages per hour, while they read at three times that speed for erotica (色情作品). And higher "acceleration factor"—or how much readers speed up as they get closer to finishing—correlates with higher average rating for a book. One of the highest acceleration factors comes from Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," which readers start speeding through at the halfway mark, Mr. Friedman says. All three companies allow users to hide their reading behavior from other customers, but users can't opt out of their behavior being collected by the company itself. Entitle, however, says it keeps track of browsing and download information only.[I] Personalized recommendations drive 10 times more browsing traffic than lists based on themes such as "globe-trotting memoirs" or "bad role models" that copy racks at the front of bookstores, Scribd's Mr. Friedman says. The company is interested in combining algorithms with lists to create a list of best sellers that someone would, based on past reading behavior, find interesting. Another possible approach is to suggest different books or genres depending on time of day to take advantage of what the company knows about time-based preferences.[J] The algorithm doesn't just analyze behavior signals, but "reads" through a book's text to pull out different topics, genres and subjects, says Bryan Batten, chief executive of Entitle. There's also a patent-pending (申请专利中的) service called "if these books had a baby," where users can input two books and find a third with similar themes. For example, the "baby" of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" but the product of "Catch-22" and Steve Jobs biography is a book called "Dealers of Lightning," about engineers at Xerox Corp.[K] Entitle operates on a tiered model: two books for $9.99 a month (the most popular plan), three for $14.99, and so on. For customers, the upside is being able to keep the e-books, even if they cancel the service. The services, of course, compete with the library. But libraries have had limited e-book offerings and there are often waits for the books. Robert Wolven, co-chair of the American Library Association's Digital Content Working Group, says demand has increased significantly in the past 18 months. He says he doesn't see the startups as a threat.[L] While libraries' budget for e-books has been growing, licensing restrictions mean that popular titles often aren't available, says Laura Girmscheid, research manager for the trade publication Library Journal, which recently released its fourth annual report on e-books in libraries. This, combined with holds on e-books, is the largest hurdle preventing people from using library e-books more. "It's just not convenient for instant access," Ms. Girmscheid says.