Can Mix of Teachers, Computers Lead to Pupil Success? [A]When visitors to the Carpe Diem charter school see 175 students wearing headphones and staring into computer screens from small cubicles, principal Mark Forner is ready for a skeptical reaction. "Our critics say it looks like a telemarketing call center," he said, pre-emptively(先发制人地). "I tell people it reminds me of a university library." [B]The tightly arranged cubed seating in a large, open room isn't the only way Carpe Diem doesn't look like a traditional school. There's also this fact—there are only five teachers for 175 students. That's a 35-1 student-to-teacher ratio, a little out of line for what many middle and high schools offer. Eventually, the five teachers—with the assistance of aides—will be expected to educate 300 students as the school grows, creating a 60-1 ratio more common in Third World countries. [C]That's because Carpe Diem offers a "blended learning" curriculum. It's a cutting-edge and controversial concept that delivers a big chunk of instruction to students via computer at school and occasionally at home and mixes it with periodic small group discussions and one-on-one instruction. [D]Carpe Diem, which serves grades 6 to 12 with a 13-member staff, brought blended learning to Indianapolis for the first time last year. Three more blended learning charter schools recently opened in Indianapolis—Phalen Leadership Academy, Nexus Academy and Enlace Academy—but the concept is only starting to ramp up. More than a dozen blended learning schools are planned to open here over the next five years. [E]"Our intuition is that it does work," said Earl Martin Phalen, founder of the Phalen Academy charter school. "If you watch a two-year-old grab an iPad and flip through it, you see our kids are pretty adept with technology. We certainly understand it can be a learning tool." [F]Electronic instruction is hardly new—online-only schools have been around for more than a decade. But blended schools claim to have developed a hybrid they say is more effective for many kids. It allows students to work at their own pace to conquer concepts they can handle and consult a teacher or their peers when they need extra help. Learning model or profit machine? [G]Critics of blended learning, however, lump this concept in with other online schools and say they have concerns about the quality of the learning experience and the true motivations of the purveyors(承办商)of electronic instruction. Some wonder if they care more about learning or profits. After all, it can be far cheaper to teach a student with a computer in a cubicle than with an actual person standing in front of the classroom. That, in turn, can free up dollars that can be paid out in profit that can go to school operators and the testing companies that make several of the hot-selling software programs they buy. [H]Last year, the consulting firm The Parthenon Group did a study that aimed to estimate the cost of blended learning instruction compared with a traditional classroom model. It found the difference could be as much as $2,400 per student below what traditional public schools spend on instruction. That's almost 25% less than what the typical traditional public school spends, the study said. [I]Phalen, whose charter school opened in Indianapolis this year, acknowledged that there are those who use online tools to cut costs. But he said his schools and others like them are trying to do what every business aims to do—find ways to deliver services that are cheaper and better at the same time. Phalen Academy is not entirely a blended learning school but uses some blended learning techniques in its classes. [J]Rick Ogston, who founded Carpe Diem in Arizona, said cost-cutting was the last thing on his mind when he began experimenting with blended learning at his first school. His motivation, he said, was to find a way to tailor instruction to the point where it was personalized to each student. Personalized instruction [K]Carpe Diem's Indianapolis principal, Mark Forner, is a former insurance agent who changed careers to become a teacher by joining Teach for America, a program that places new teachers in needy schools nationwide. Forner, 47, said he studied blended learning in graduate school. "The great thing about blended learning is no two kids move at the same pace," he said. "In traditional school if you are a kid who gets it, you have to wait until the next year to move up to the grade. Here you don't have to wait for the cohort(大部队)." [L]That's what brought student Sydney Pedigo to Carpe Diem from Western Boone High School last year as a 10th-grader. A math genius, she said she was often bored in math class. Even when teachers gave her more advanced work to do on her own she would often zip through it and be stuck waiting for the rest of the class. [M]Carpe Diem's approach is sometimes called the "flipped" classroom. Lectures that used to take place in class are instead routinely watched online on video. Students then work their way through exercises based on the lecture content and take a short quiz. A lesson typically takes about 40 minutes to complete. Then, when students go to class, their work is focused on discussion, group work and individual help, said Liz Retana, the school's English teacher. So far, the results are impressive. [N]Most new charter schools start with low student scores, and the good ones raise them over time. In its first year, Carpe Diem saw 73% of its students pass English and math on Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress, just a half-point below the state average. By comparison, Indianapolis Public School 27, which two years ago converted to the highly regarded Center for Inquiry curriculum, saw just 54.7% pass. The two schools have very similar demographics. Carpe Diem has slightly more poor and minority students and slightly fewer students learning English as a second language or in special education. Moving too quickly? [O]Butler University education professors Shelly Furuness and Kelli Esteves, who have experimented with blended learning in their college classes and support the idea, nonetheless worry about the workload for teachers such as Retana. [P]Furuness and Esteves have used blended learning for core foundation courses in learning theories, education concepts and educational history at Butler. Their decision to try blended learning was also influenced by the goal of individualized instruction. But the two were quick to point out that they co-teach a class with 25 students when they do blended learning—a 12-1 ratio of students to teacher—and only for select classes. The two are skeptical of blended learning as a central concept for a whole school. [Q]Furuness said she worries when she hears about students who quickly complete high school courses by relying heavily on online tools. At college level, she said, students often struggle not because they haven't passed tests on basic concepts but because they can't connect those concepts through critical thinking. That sort of skill is typically polished up in conversation with teachers and peers. "Sometimes they're collecting gold stars when they should be connecting dots," Furuness said. [R]Forner, Carpe Diem's principal, doesn't disagree. "We are very clear with parents we are not an online school and that we have high-quality teachers," he said. "There are some things you cannot get from an online-only school that you can only get with a high-quality teacher. That includes real-world application. You can only get that from a great teacher down in the classroom.

中国姓氏的来源多种多样，有的来源于地名，有的来源于官职，有的来源于职业。

During the next several weeks I went completely to the wolves. I took a tiny tent and set it up on the shore of bay. The big telescope was set up in the mouth of the tent in such a way that I could observe the wolves by day or night. Quite by accident I had pitched my tent within ten yards of one of the major paths used by the wolves. Shortly after I had taken up residence, one of the wolves came back and discovered me and my tent, but he did not stop or hesitate in his pace. Later, one or more wolves used the track past my tent and never did they show the slightest interest in me. I felt uncomfortable at being so totally ignored. The next day I noticed a male wolf make boundary markers by passing water on the rounds of his family lands. Once I had become aware of the strong feeling of property rights which existed among the wolves, I decided to use this knowledge to make them at least recognize my existence. One evening, after they had gone off for their regular nightly hunt, I staked out a property claim of my own, including a long section of the wolves' path. In order to ensure that my claim would not be overlooked, I made a property mark on stones, dumps of moss, and patches of vegetation with a lot of tea. Before the hunters came back, task was done, and I retired, somewhat exhausted, to observe results. A few minutes later the leading male appeared. As usual he did not bother to glance at the tent, but when he reached the point where my property line intersected the trail, he stopped as abruptly as if he had run into an invisible wall. Cautiously he extended his nose and sniffed at one of my marked bushes. After a minute of hesitation he backed away a few yards and sat down. Then, he looked directly at the tent and at me. His glare seemed to become fiercer as I attempted to stare him down. The situation was becoming intolerable. To break the impasse I turned my back on the wolf. Then briskly, and with an air of decision, he turned his attention away from me and began a systematic tour of the area. I had staked out as my own. As he came to each boundary marker he sniffed it once or twice, then carefully placed his mark on the outside of mine.

The increase in global trade means that international companies cannot afford to make costly advertising mistakes if they want to be competitive. Understanding the language and culture of target markets in foreign countries is one of the keys to successful international marketing. Too many companies, however, have jumped into foreign markets with embarrassing results. Translation mistakes are at the heart of many blunders in international advertising. General Motors, the US auto manufacturer, got a costly lesson when it introduced its Chevrolet Nova to the Puerto Rican market. "Nova" is Latin for "new (star)" and means "star" in many languages, but in spoken Spanish it can sound like "no va", meaning "it doesn't go". Few people wanted to buy a car with that cursed meaning. When GM changed the name to Caribe, sales picked up dramatically. Marketing blunders have also been made by food and beverage companies. One American food company's friendly "Jolly Green Giant" (for advertising vegetables) became something quite different when it was translated into Arabic as "Intimidating Green Ogre". When translated into German, Pepsi's popular slogan, "Come Alive with Pepsi" came out implying "Come Alive from the Grave". No wonder customers in Germany didn't rush out to buy Pepsi. Even a company with an excellent international track record like Kentucky Fried Chicken is not immune to the perils of faulty translation. Many sales were lost when the catch phrase "finger licking food" became "eat with your fingers off' in Chinese translation. A manufacturer of one laundry detergent also made an expensive mistake in the Middle East. Its advertisements showed a picture of a pile of dirty clothes on the left, a box of the company's detergent in the middle, and clean clothes on the right. Unfortunately, the message was incorrectly interpreted because most people looked at it from right to left, the way Arabic is read. Having awakened to the special nature of foreign advertising, companies are becoming much more conscientious in their translation and more sensitive to cultural distinctions. The best way to prevent errors is to hire professional translators who understand the target language and its idiomatic usage, or to use a technique called "back translation" to reduce the possibility of blunders. The process uses one person to translate a message into the target language and another to translate it back. Effective translators aim to capture the overall message of an advertisement because a word-for-word duplication of the original rarely conveys the intended meaning and often causes misunderstandings.

BSection C/B

据相关资料显示，到去年年底，中国智能手机市场已成为全球智能手机出货量(shipment)第一的市场。

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吉祥图案(auspicious)是中国吉祥文化的典型代表，追求美好事物和前景是吉祥文化永恒的主题。

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汉字(Chinese character)是世界上最古老的文字之一，其历史可以追溯到5000年前。

While the 1970s pop psychotherapy movement focused on the importance of letting anger out, more recent research suggests that there's a smarter, healthier way to react to life's slings and arrows; with forgiveness. In a recent study, it was found that when individuals were about to forgive, they experienced greater joy, a more profound sense of control over life and less depression. Sound appealing. a)Why holding a grudge(怨恨)can be harmful? Your boyfriend blows you off for an important date. If you stay angry at him, you'll probably get fresh flowers on your doorstep and maybe a fancy meal or two. But grudge-holding only gives us the illusion of power. If you hold on to that anger on a chronic basis, then it has power over you, eating away at your peace of mind and perhaps even your immune system. A study by Kathleen Lawler, Ph. D., a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee, confirms that people who are unable to forgive report more stress in their lives, more illness and more visits to the doctor than do forgiving folk. b)Going from a grudge to forgiveness A few ways to develop your capacity to turn the other cheek—Try writing a daily "forgiveness" reminder in your journal; it may sound corny(过时的), but it's a great way to help gain control over your emotional life. —Write a letter to your offender, detailing exactly what's bothering you. Then toss it. You'll feel better, even if your message never reaches its intended target. —What, exactly, makes your blood boil? Forgiveness isn't about swallowing anger or being a doormat(逆来顺受的人). It's not about forgetting, either. On the contrary, it's about acknowledging an offence with your eyes wide open—and then releasing the anger. That means conjuring unempathy(不执着)toward the person who hurt you, then focusing on the good parts of your life. c)An act of courage Still not convinced that it's worth it to put your energies toward forgiving? Besides the benefits to your psyche and physical health, true forgiveness is a sign of strength and soulfulness. "It takes a lot of moral muscle to forgive," says Dr. Witvleit of Hope College in Michigan. The bottom line: Forgiving ultimately benefits the forgiver more than the person who has done wrong. So start putting your own well-being first, and live life with as much interest and love as you can.

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在长期的生产经营中，他们继承了中华民族优秀的文化传统，具有鲜明的地域文化特征和历史痕迹。

中国传统婚礼是华夏文化的精粹。中国古人认为黄昏是一天中最吉利的时间，所以会在黄昏举行婚礼。中国人喜爱红，将红色看作是幸福、成功、好运、忠诚和繁荣的象征。因此在传统中国婚礼上，主色调是红色。有红色的蜡烛、红色的绸带(ribbon)、红花和新娘的红衣和红鞋。新娘吃的食物也是一种文化象征。新娘一般会吃 红枣 (red date)、花生、 桂圆 (longan)和 瓜子 (melon seed)，其中的象征意义可以从这四种食物的读音中看出。当这四种食物放在一起读时就是“早生贵子”。

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay about the impact of social networking by referring to the saying "Social networking platforms drive a man closer to those in neighboring continents, while driving him further apart from those in his neighborhood" You can give examples to illustrate your point and then explain what you can do to avoid the bad effects of social networking. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

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被称为 “90后” (the post-90s)的中国新生一代拥有一种完全不同于父辈的文化。他们是首批伴随着互联网长大的一代。在网络平台上，“90后”以多种方式表达自我。他们在社交网络上闲逛，在微博上发帖，组成有成千上万成员的所谓“部落”，利用 “火星人” (Martian)语言交流。在这样一个信息化时代长大，他们很容易形成自己的判断力，不受父母的影响。相对上一代而言，90后虽然更容易叛逆，却更自信，更富有进取心，也能够更好地适应新环境。