清明节是中国重要的传统节日，通常在阳历4月5日左右。它始于周朝。有2500多年的历史。清明节是中国人祭祀(offer sacrifices to)祖先的日子。在清明节祭祀逝去的先祖亲人实际上体现了生者对逝者的思念与敬爱。由于清明节与中国另一个传统节日 “寒食节” (Cold Food Day)临近，所以吃寒食也成为清明节的习俗之一。除了扫墓。清明节还有荡秋千等风俗活动。如今。清明节已经成为中国重要的 非物质文化遗产 (intangible cultural heritage)。

Depending on which player you ask, the "Fevernova" ball that sports equipment maker Adidas says provides the ultimate soccer experience is uncontrollable, too big or just simply "stupid". The ball also has its fans, like England's David Beckham, but so far they seem to have been outnumbered by critics. Adidas says the ball, splashed with gold coloring, is quite simply the best around—25 percent more accurate than the ball used at France 98 thanks to meticulous testing by scientists in Germany. The tongue-twisting nature of its contents confirms that the World Cup ball has come a long way from the leather-and-laces variety that was common as recently as the 1960s. The Fevernova's secret, Adidas says, is its radically improved Syntactic foam and unique knitted Raschel fabric. Given that this is supposed to make the ball faster and provide the free-kick specialists like Beckham with more power, it may not be surprising that goalkeepers like Buffon are unhappy. Spain goalkeeper Pedro Contreras said the ball acts "strangely", while Danish keeper Thomas Sorensen admitted gloomily that it would probably result in more spectacular goals. "As a goalkeeper, you have to live with the fact that the makers create balls for the benefit of strikers," he said before leaving Copenhagen for South Korea. But outfield players have also weighed in with criticism, many saying the ball is too light and therefore hard to control. "It's big and it's too light," Japan's Jiji news agency quoted Brazilian forward Edilson as saying earlier this month, while striker Rivaldo said it soared too far when kicked. Journalists at the main press centre in Yokohama have been given the chance to try out the Fevernova from the penalty spot, with the aim of hitting special targets in the goal. So far, few have been able to score more than five out of ten, although this may have little to do with the quality of the ball. Putz admits that the ball is on the light side of FIFA's 420 to 445 gram weight requirement, but says it is no bigger than previous balls. The controversy over the ball also has an off-pitch dimension. Industry insiders say it may be no coincidence that players from Brazil, sponsored by Adidas rival Nike, have been among the ball's most vociferous critics. The same might go for the praise dished out for the ball by Beckham, one of the main players used to promote Adidas equipment.

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should focus on the difficulty in acquiring useful information in spite of advanced information technology. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. "We have lots of information technology. We just don't have much useful information."

I've always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place. For as long as I can remember, I've loved learning new things and solving problems. So when I sat down at a computer for the first time in seventh grade, I was hooked. It was an old teletype machine and it could barely do anything compared to the computers we have today. But it changed my life. Computers have transformed how we learn, giving kids everywhere a window into all of the world's knowledge. They're helping us build communities around the things we care about and to stay close to the people who are important to us, no matter where they are. Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it "tap-dancing to work." My job at Microsoft is as challenging as ever, but what makes me "tap-dance to work" is when we show people something new, like a computer that can recognize your handwriting or your speech, or one that can store a lifetime's worth of photos, and they say, "I didn't know you could do that with a PC!" But for all the cool things that a person can do with a PC, there are lots of other ways we can put our creativity and intelligence to work to improve our world. There are still far too many people in the world whose most basic needs go unmet. Every year, for example, millions of people die from diseases that are easy to prevent or treat in the developed world. I believe that my own good fortune brings with it a responsibility to give back to the world. As a father, I believe that the death of a child in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the death of a child anywhere else. And that it doesn't take much to make an immense difference in these children's lives. I'm still very much an optimist, and I believe that progress on even the world's toughest problems is possible—and it's happening every day. We're seeing new drugs for deadly diseases, new diagnostic tools, and new attention paid to the health problems in the developing world. I'm excited by the possibilities I see for medicine, for education and, of course, for technology. And I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we're going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime.

A blind baby is doubly handicapped. Not only is it unable to see, but because it cannot receive the visual stimulus from its environment that a sighted child does, it is likely to be slow in intellectual development. Now the ten-month old son of Dr. and Mrs. Dennis Daughters is the subject of an unusual psychological experiment designed to prevent a lag in the learning process. With the aid of a sonar-type electronic device that he wears on his head, infant Dennis is learning to identify the people and objects in the world around him by means of echoes. The device is a refinement of the "Sonicguide", an instrument produced by Telesensory Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and used by blind adults in addition to a sane or guide dog. As adapted for Dennis, it consists of a battery-powered system about the size of a half dollar that is on a headgear. A transmitter emits an ultrasonic pulse that creates an 80 degree cone of sound at 6 feet. Echoes from objects within the cone are perceived as sounds that vary in pitch and volume with the size and distance of the object. The closer an object is, the lower the pitch, and the larger the object, the louder the signal. Hard surfaces produce a sharp ping, while soft ones send back signals with a slightly fuzzy quality. An object slightly to the right of Dennis sends back a louder sound to his right ear than to the left. Thus, by simply moving his head right and left and up and down, he can not only locate an object but also get some notion of its shape and size, thanks to the varying qualities of sounds reaching his ears as the cone of ultrasound passes its edges. Dennis likes to use the device to play a kind of peek-a-boo with his mother. Standing on her knee and facing her directly, he receives a strong signal in both ears. By turning his head away, he makes her seem to disappear. From the first time he wore it," says Mrs. Daughters, "it was like a light going on in his head." What remains to be determined is how well the device will help Dennis cope with his surroundings as he begins to walk and venture further into his environment. Meanwhile, Telesensory, Inc. is working on the development of sonar device with somewhat the same sensitivity as Dennis's for use by school-age children.

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

红包的主要意义在于红色，因为它象征好运和祝福。

中国的 国有企业 (state-owned enterprise)是指中央政府和地方政府投资或管理的企业。设立国有企业是为了实现国家调节经济的目标，并协调国民经济各个方面。但如今国有企业的不足之处不容忽视。大多国有企业因政府长期扶持，而缺乏竞争力与创新精神。有些企业对自己的品牌不够重视。影响了中国民族品牌的发展。在 社会主义市场经济 (socialist market economy)条件下，国有企业应以社会稳定和经济发展为主要目标，在公共产品提供和其他领域中发挥 宏观调控 (macro regulation)作用。

[此试题无题干]

BSection C/B

大兴安岭 (Great Khingan Mountains)位于黑龙江省东北部，南北长约1220公里。那里气候极度寒冷，在 满语 (Manchu)中，“兴安”的意思就是“极寒的地方”。大兴安岭是中国东北部的著名山脉，也是中国最重要的林业基地之一。大兴安岭森林茂密，林地占730万 公顷 (hectare)，森林覆盖率达74．1％。该地区野生动、植物十分丰富，有珍稀动物400余种，野生植物1000余种。大兴安岭盛产野生 蓝莓 (blueberry)，是主要野生蓝莓产区。该区是一座美丽的大花园，也是一座取之不尽的宝库。

观众不仅能欣赏到各种令人垂涎欲滴的食物，而且还能了解到各种菜肴精致的制作过程。

[此试题无题干]

《史记》(Records of the Grand Historian)不以时间为顺序，而是以人物为中心来记录历史事实，开创了新的史书写作手法。

When global warming finally came, it stuck with a vengeance(异乎寻常地). 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(灵长目动物)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(宜人的)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.