In the battle for the young soda drinkers of China, U.S.-based Pepsi-Cola may have found a powerful new weapon: young street sellers toting(背负)backpack soda dispensers. It may sound trivial, but in China's teeming(拥挤的)cities, getting cold carbonated drinks into the hands of the young can be a struggle. Vending machines are often out of order, hawkers with pushcarts can't keep drinks cold enough, and the friendly mom-and-pop comer stores just don't cut it with teenagers trying to act hip. The backpack dispensers are the latest twist in a continuing battle between Pepsi-Cola and rival Coca-Cola for China's soda drinkers. Since 1996, Pepsi has virtually conceded dominance to Coca-Cola in all but a few international markets. Among the exceptions is China, where Pepsi-Cola believes it can make a last stand by appealing to youth. So far, however, it hasn't gained much ground. Research firm AC Nielsen says a January survey indicated Coca-Cola had captured 47% of China's market for carbonated beverages—Sprite and Fanta. Pepsi-Cola's share lagged well behind at 19%, most of which was due to Pepsi, followed by 7-Up and Mountain Dew. Globally, Coca-Cola had a 51% share of beverage sales last year, compared with 21% for Pepsi-Cola. Coca-Cola's China marketing director in Hong Kong, John Cheung, says his firm tried backpack dispensers in China a few years ago but decided they weren't paying off because the drinks warmed up too quickly. But Pepsi-Cola's Tan says the dispensers his company uses—made by U.S.-based Thirst Enders International—keep the rate of warming to a minimum: two degrees an hour on a hot day. With shoppers in Chengdu gulping down the 32 cups in each tank within an hour, the drinks are always cool. Cheung admits that another reason for Coca-Cola's disappointing results was that it picked older, unemployed adults to wear the dispensers, rather than upbeat young people. Pepsi-Cola avoided that mistake by recruiting from universities. "We want people who can be identified by the young customers with selling the drinks," says Tan. "They need to be young, energetic and outgoing." Pepsi-Cola also has used the dispensers in the Philippines and Singapore for promotions and sporting events. In China, it may start using them at soccer games—it sponsors the country's premier league. Tan says he wants to take the packs nationwide "as soon as possible". That will mean convincing bottlers and distributors to stump up $1,000 for each pack.(Under Pepsi-Cola's arrangements with its local partners, the partners bear the full cost.) Coca-Cola's Cheung admits he's watching Pepsi-Cola's gambit(策略)carefully. "If the day comes that the backpack is such a big advantage," he says, "We'll use them too."
Tennessee's technical and community colleges will not outsource (外包) management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus. In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus' spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings— which included data from the system's 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities—were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam's proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money. "While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial," Morgan wrote to the presidents. "System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursuing a broad scale outsourcing initiative." Workers' advocates have criticized Haslam's plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized. Morgan notified the Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. In an email statement from the state's Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a "business justification" the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan. "The state's facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February," Martin said. "At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed." Morgan's comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam's plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor's proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization "unworkable".
BSection A/B
[此试题无题干]
[此试题无题干]
[此试题无题干]
随着人们生活水平的提高，孩子们有更多的机会外出就餐，他们无法抵制美食的诱惑，结果不可避免地胖起来。
Three English dictionaries published recently all lay claim to possessing a "new" feature. The BBC English Dictionary contains background information on 1,000 people and places prominent in the news since 1988; the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: Encyclopedic(百科全书的)Edition is the OALD plus encyclopedic entries; the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture is the LDOCE plus cultural information. The key fact is that all three dictionaries can be seen to have a distinctly "cultural" as well as language learning content. That being said, the way in which they approach the cultural element is not identical, making direct comparisons between the three difficult. While there is some common ground between the encyclopedic, cultural entries for the Oxford and Longman dictionaries, there is a clear difference. Oxford lays claim to being encyclopedic on content whereas Longman distinctly concentrates on the language and culture of the English-speaking world. The Oxford dictionary can therefore stand more vigorous scrutiny for cultural bias than the Longman publication because the latter does not hesitate about viewing the rest of the world from the cultural perspectives of the English-speaking world. The cultural objectives of the BBC dictionary are in turn more distinct still. Based on an analysis of over 70 million words recorded from the BBC World Service and National Public Radio of Washington over a period of four years, their 1,000 brief encyclopedic entries are based on people and places that have featured in the news recently. The intended user they have in mind is a regular listener to the World Service who will have a reasonable standard of English and a developed skill in listening comprehension. In reality, though, the BBC dictionary will be purchased by a far wider range of language learners, as will the other two dictionaries. We will be faced with a situation where many of the users of these dictionaries will at the very least have distinct socio-cultural perspectives and may have world views which are totally opposed and even hostile to those of the West. Advanced learners from this kind of background will not only evaluate a dictionary on how user-friendly it is but will also have definite views about the scope and appropriateness of the various socio-cultural entries.
For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Student Investors in the Stock Market. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words following the outline given below. 1．目前越来越多的大学生炒股。 2．人们对大学生炒股看法不一。 3．我的看法。
玉
(jade)是一种天然的矿产，质地坚硬，色彩多样。古人认为玉能益寿延年、保佑平安，所以中国和亚洲其他国家的人们都喜欢佩戴玉制饰品。现代医学证明玉所含的矿物质的确有利于身体健康。中国许多地方都出产玉石，以新疆和田玉最为著名。在中国传统文化中。玉常常和高贵的品质联系在一起，而玉器工艺也表现出中国人民的聪明智慧和创造才能。因此，北京奥运会奖牌使用了
“金镶玉”
(jade inlaid)的制作工艺，向世界传播中国玉文化。
For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, complaining about the poor service of a bookstore. You should write at least 150 words according to the outline given below in Chinese. 设想你买了一本英文词典，发现有这样那样的质量问题，书店的服务态度又不好，因此给报社编辑写信。信中必须包括以下内容： 1．事情的起因。 2．与书店交涉的经过。 3．呼吁服务行业必须提高服务质量。
The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people's work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work【C1】______which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a【C2】______thought. But, in fact, it could offer the【C3】______of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic freedom. Employment became【C4】______when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and【C5】______work from people's homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people commuted longer distances to their places of employment until,【C6】______, many people's work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived. Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. It became【C7】______for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and families to his wife. It was not only women whose work status【C8】______As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were【C9】______. All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the idealist goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of【C10】______many people to manage without full-time jobs. A)amazing F)discouraging K)prospect B)concepts G)eventually L)removed C)customary H)excluded M)suffered D)definitely I)helping N)vision E)deprived J)patterns O)widespread
[此试题无题干]
[此试题无题干]
诸葛亮是
三国时期
(the Three Kingdoms Period)杰出的军事家和政治家。他帮助刘备打了一系列的战争，联合盟友，不断扩张刘备的领地、增强刘备的实力。
蜀国
(the Shu State)建立后，他被任命为
丞相
(Prime Minister)，管理政务、军事、民族交流和农业生产等事务。诸葛亮也是一位著名的艺术家，爱好
书法
(calligraphy)、绘画和音乐。他还发明或改造了一些运输工具和传统兵器。是一位优秀的发明家。中国人认为诸葛亮是个非常有智慧的人，他的传奇故事至今仍广泛流传。中国很多的传统习语都与他有关。
[此试题无题干]
近30年来，中国经济快速发展，居民生活水平有了显著提高，居民的
消费支出结构
(consumption expenditure structure)也日趋合理。城镇居民的消费重点已从基本生活消费品转向了住房、交通和教育这些领域。统计显示，中国城镇居民在教育、文化、娱乐、服务、医疗和保健等方面的投入占总开支的34％，这表明城镇居民越来越注重精神生活和健康方面的需求。为了使城镇居民消费结构更合理，政府需要提高居民收入水平。同时，大众媒体也应当引导居民进行理性消费。
算盘(abacus)是汉族劳动人民发明创造的一种简便的计算工具。中国是算盘的故乡，在计算机已被普遍使用的今天，古老的算盘不仅没有被废弃，反而因它的灵便、准确等优点，在许多国家方兴未艾。因此，人们往往把算盘的发明与中国古代四大发明相提并论。由于珠算盘运算方便、快速，几千年来一直是汉族劳动人民普遍使用的计算工具，即使最先进的电子计算器也不能完全取代算盘的作用。2013年，算盘已正式成为人类非物质文化遗产。
[此试题无题干]
Parents can easily come down with an acute case of schizophrenia(精神分裂症)from reading the contradictory reports about the state of the public schools. One set of experts asserts that the schools are better than they have been for years. Others say that the schools are in terrible shape and are responsible for every national problem from urban poverty to the trade deficit One group of experts looks primarily at such indicators as test scores, and they cheer what they see: all the indicators—reading scores, minimum competency test results, the scholastic aptitude test scores—are up, some by substantial margins. Students are required to take more academic courses— more mathematics and science, along with greater stress on basic skills, including knowledge of computers. More than 40 state legislatures have mandated such changes. But in the eyes of another set of school reformers such changes are at best superficial and at worst counterproductive. These experts say that merely toughening requirements without either improving the quality of instruction or even more important, changing the way schools are organized and children are taught makes the schools worse rather than better. They challenge the nature of the tests, mostly multiple choice or true or false, by which children's progress is measured; they charge that raising the test scores by drilling pupils to come up with the right answers does not improve knowledge, understanding and the capacity to think logically and independently. In adoption, these critics fear that the get-tough approach to school reform will cause more of the youngsters at the bottom to give up and drop out. This, they say, may improve national scores but drain even further the nation's pool of educated people. The way to cut through the confusion is to understand the different yardsticks used by different observers. Compared with what schools used to be like "in the good old days", with lots of drill and uniform requirements, and the expectation that many youngsters who could not make it would drop out and find their way into unskilled jobs—by those yardsticks the schools have measurably improved in recent years. But by the yardsticks of those experts who believe that the old school was deficient in teaching the skills needed in the modern world, today's schools have not become better. These educators believe that rigid new mandates may actually have made the schools worse.