Millions of people now rent their movies the Netflix way. They fill out a wish list from the 50,000 titles on the company's Website and receive the first few DVD's in the mail; when they mail each one back, the next one on the list is sent. The Netflix model has been exhaustively analyzed for its disruptive, new-economy 1. What will it mean for video stores like Blockbuster, which has, in fact, started a similar service? What will it mean for movie studios and theaters? What does it show about "long tail" businesses—ones that combine many niche markets, like those for Dutch movies or classic musicals, into a 2 large audience? But one other major implication has 3 been mentioned: what this and similar Internet-based businesses mean for that stalwart of the old economy, the United States Postal Service.Every day, some two million Netflix envelopes come and go as first-class mail. They are joined by millions of other shipments from 4 pharmacies, eBay vendors, Amazon.com and other businesses that did not exist before the Internet.The 5 demise of "snail mail" in the age of instant electronic communication has been predicted at least as often as the coming of the paperless office. But the consumption of paper keeps 6 rising. It has roughly doubled since 1980. On average, an American household receives twice as many pieces of mail a day as it did in the 1970's.The harmful side of the Internet's impact is obvious but statistically less important than many would guess. People 7 write fewer letters when they can send e-mail messages. To 8 through a box of old paper correspondence is to know what has been 9 in this shift: the pretty stamps, the varying look and feel of handwritten and typed correspondence, the tangible 10 that was once in the sender's hands.

African elephants have been slaughtered at alarming rate over the past decade, largely because they are the primary source of the world's ivory. Their population has been dwindled from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 625,000 today, and the rate of killing has been 1 in recent years because many of the older, bigger 2 animals have already been destroyed. "The poachers now must kill times as many elephants to get the same quantity of ivory," explained Curtis Bohlen, senior vice president of the World Wildlife Fund.Though its record on the environment has been spotty so far, the government last week took the 3 in a major conservation issue by imposing a ban on ivory imports into the US. The move came just four days after a consortium of 4 groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation International, called for that kind of action, and it made the US the first nation to forbid imports of both raw and 5 ivory. The ban, says Bohlen, sends a very clear 6 to the ivory poachers that the game is over.In the past African nations have resisted an ivory ban, but increasingly they realized that the decimation of the elephant herds poses a 7 threat to their tourist business. Last month Tanzania and several other African countries called for an amendment to the 102 nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species 8 would make the ivory trade illegal worldwide. The amendment is expected to be approved at an October meeting in Geneva and to go into effect next January. But between now and then, conservationists 9 poachers may go on a rampage, killing elephants 10, so nations should unilaterally forbid imports right away.

(1) The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph's fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting. (2) Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art. (3) Photographers' disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expressionist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography's prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the 1960's. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is, abstract art as developed in different ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art. is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art. (4) Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.

Nowadaysmanykidsareoverprotectedbytheirparents.Butisitnecessarytodothat?Lookatthefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteyourresponseinabout200words,inwhichyoushouldstartwithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandgiveyourviewontheissue.Markswillbeawardedforcontentrelevance,contentsufficiency,organization,languagequality.Failuretofollowtheaboveinstructionsmayresultinalossofmarks.WriteyourresponseonANSWERSHEETTHREE.

Noise constitutes a real and present danger to people's health. Day and night, at home, at work, and at play, noise can produce serious physical and 1 stress. No one is 2 to this stress. Though we seem to 3 noise by ignoring it, the ear, in fact, never closes and the body still responds—sometimes with extreme tension—to a strange sound in the night.The 4 we feel when faced with noise is the most common outward disease of the stress building up inside us. The more 5 and more serious health hazards associated with the stress caused by noise traditionally have been given much less attention. Nevertheless, when we are annoyed or made irritable by stress, we should consider these symptoms fair 6 that other things may be happening to us, some of which may be damaging our health.Of all health hazards of noise, hearing loss is most clearly observable and measurable by health professionals. The other hazards are harder to 7. For many of us, there may be a risk that exposure to stress of noise 8 susceptibility to disease and infection. However, the link between noise and many disabilities or diseases has not yet been 9 demonstrated, and we tend to dismiss annoyance caused by noise 10 a price to pay for living in the modern world.

单选题 Travis hopes to be ______ from hospital next month.

单选题 You ______ John in the street this morning. He's been dead for ages.

单选题 A. obligation B. occurs C. significant D. prior E. available F. approach G. preferences H. implies I. contribution J. distribution K. primarily L. convert M. automatically N. qualify O. overall To understand the marketing concept, it is only necessary to understand the difference between marketing and selling. Not too many years ago, most industries concentrated 42 on the efficient production of goods, and then relied on' persuasive salesmanship' to move as much of these goods as possible. Such production and selling focuses on the needs of the seller to produce goods and then 43 them into money. Marketing, on the other hand, 44 that emphasis is placed on the wants of consumers. It begins with analyzing the 45 and demands of consumers and then producing goods that will satisfy them. This eye-on-the-consumer 46 is known as the marketing concept. It simply means that instead of trying to sell whatever is easier to produce, the makers first try to find out what the consumer wants to buy and then go about making it 47 for purchase. Every step—design, production, 48 , promotion—is made according to consumer demand. This concept does not mean that consumer satisfaction is 49 over profit in a company. There are always two sides to every business activity—the firm and the consumer—and each must be satisfied before trade 50 Successful merchants and producers, however, recognize that the surest route to profit is through understanding customers. When Coca Cola changed the flavor of its drink in mid-1985, the non-acceptance by a 51 portion of the public brought about a quick restoration of the Classic Coke. This is a good example of the importance of satisfying consumers.

单选题 Which of the following sentences is NOT correct?

单选题 Which of the following sentences is an emphatic sentence(强调句)?

单选题 If you had entered the office ten minutes ago, you ______ what we were talking about just now.

单选题 Which of the following italicized words does NOT indicate willingness? ______

单选题 Though it was late in the night, ______ he continued to work vigorously.

单选题 There's no denying that as we age ______, our body ages right along with us.

单选题 SECTION A MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by ten multiple choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE (1) When Tess Vigeland came home from work and cried in her backyard for three hours, she knew it was time to leave her job. Then she turned in her notice the following week. (2) With her recently published book, 'Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want,' she is encouraging people to make similar moves. While doing so certainly involves some risk, Vigeland says it doesn't mean being reckless. 'I'm not saying, 'Leave a job without bothering to think about the consequences,'' she says, adding that doing some financial planning in advance is important. Saving, trimming expenses and picking up freelance work are just a few of the ways to make leaving your job more manageable financially. (3) Indeed, Vigeland says that as the economy appears to recover, more and more people are looking to walk away from being an employee in order to pursue big dreams, self-employment, travel or other opportunities. If you are considering a similarly big change, Vigeland suggests you keep the following in mind: Scrutinize your finances. (4) Vigeland recommends considering your current expenses and income, including from alternate sources, such as a partner's salary or freelance work, to consider whether you can cover your basic living costs without your primary income. 'I did some calculations with my husband and we figured his salary could pay the mortgage with me not working at all,' she says. In addition, she planned to take on freelance work so her income would not go to zero. 'I also knew I had a large retirement account that I could tap into if I had to, and home equity,' she adds. Adjust your lifestyle (5) After leaving her job in public radio, Vigeland's income the following year was just one-third of what it had been previously, which meant she and her husband had to cut certain expenses from their budget. 'We didn't go out to dinner as much, we didn't go on big vacation trips and we just did a lot of road trips around California, and that was fine,' she says. Redefine retirement (6) Vigeland hasn't contributed much to her retirement accounts since she left her full-time job, and she's OK with that. 'I stopped living for retirement. I don't want to stop working at age 65. I'm 46 now, and I hope I'm working for the next 30 years,' she says. Instead of saving money for retirement and saving your adventures for old age, Vigeland suggests traveling and living on less now, when you can enjoy it even more. Save up before quitting (7) Vigeland wishes she had saved more money before leaving her job, and it's something she encourages others to do now. 'I felt pressure to be churning out dollars and getting a paycheck, and I think better savings, even three months, would have saved me from a lot of that,' she says. Instead of scrambling to pick up freelance assignment as soon as possible after quitting, she could have taken her time more. (8) While leaving a steady job does come with some financial risk, Vigeland says the benefit is that it offers the chance to dream big about your next steps. 'It allows you to think about possibilities outside of what you would automatically assume. When you're in a job, it's hard to have the time to explore and think about what other options might be out there for you,' she says. PASSAGE TWO (1) Over the years, so many exceptions and amendments were made to China's one-child policy that it was hard to pinpoint a moment to pronounce it dead. But Thursday's announcement that all Chinese couples will be allowed two children is as good a moment as any to write the obituary(讣告) for this controversial policy: China's one-child policy died on October 29th, 2015. It was thirty-five years old. (2) Xinhua, the official news agency, reported that China will 'fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an aging population,' but said the implementation and timing would be up to the provinces. (3) Demographers have long warned that, because of the one-child policy, the Chinese economy will be hobbled by a shortage of workers. China's fertility rate, estimated by the World Bank in 2013 to be 1.7 births per woman, is below the replacement rate of 2.1. One in ten Chinese is now over the age of sixty-five, and that number is likely to double by mid-century. By 2022, India will become the world's most populous nation, surpassing China, according to the population division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (4) Baby-related stocks reacted Thursday with the giddiness of, well, toddlers. Chinese companies that make strollers, car seats, baby formula, and baby food all advanced, according to the Wall Street Journal. (5) Beyond that, though, the near-term impact might be mainly symbolic. By switching to a 'two-child policy', the Chinese government has signaled that it does not intend to dismantle its family-planning infrastructure. Restrictions will still apply, especially to unmarried couples and single mothers; families that want more than one child will still need to go through an application procedure, although it will be simplified. (6) The English-language China Daily reported on Friday that ninety million Chinese couples will be eligible to have a second child, but it appears likely that only a fraction will choose to do so. In late 2013, the government announced that adults who had grown up without siblings would be permitted to have two children, but, of the eleven million eligible citizens, only 1.5 million have applied. In an online survey conducted by Sina News on Thursday, which received a hundred and seventy-four thousand responses, only twenty-nine per cent of couples said they would like to have a second child. 'Only if the government raises my salary' was a typical response of those who said they would not. PASSAGE THREE (1) The old saying of never forgetting a pretty face might be untrue as psychologists believe beautiful people are less likely to be recognized. A new study suggests that attractiveness can actually prevent the recognition of faces, unless a pretty face is particularly distinctive. (2) German psychologists think the recognition of pretty faces is distorted by emotions. Scientists at the University of Jena, Germany, discovered that photos of unattractive people were more easily remembered than pretty ones when they showed them to a group of people. Researchers Holger Wiese, Carolin Altmann and Stefan Schweinberger from the university, wrote in their study: 'We could show that the test subjects were more likely to remember unattractive faces than attractive ones, when the latter didn't have any particularly noticeable traits.' (3) For the study, which was published in science magazine Neuropsychologia, the psychologists showed photos of faces to test subjects. Half of the faces were considered to be more attractive and the other half as less attractive, but all of them were being thought of as similarly distinctive looking. The test subjects were shown the faces for just a few seconds to memorize them and were shown them again during the test so that they could decide if they recognized them or not. (4) The scientists were surprised by the result. 'Until now we assumed that it was generally easier to memorize faces, which are being perceived as attractive, just because we prefer looking at beautiful faces,' Dr. Wiese said. But the study showed that such a connection cannot be easily sustained. He assumes that remembering pretty faces is distorted by emotional influences, which enhance the sense of recognition at a later time. The researchers' idea is backed up by evidence from EEG-recordings (脑电图记录) which show the brain's electric activity, which the scientists used during their experiment. (5) The study also revealed that in the case of attractive faces, considerably more false positive results were detected. In other words, people thought they recognized a face without having seen it before. 'We obviously tend to believe that we recognize a face just because we find it attractive.' Dr. Wiese said. PASSAGE FOUR (1) For more than fifty years, eating at fast-food restaurants has been an almost clinically impersonal experience: the food is rapidly prepared, remarkably cheap, utterly uniform, and served immediately. (2) I asked a woman Davis working at Sweetgreen, the destination of which is fast and delicious food made with organic ingredients sourced from local farmers, if they ever patronized McDonald's or similar restaurants. She shuddered and said nothing. After a brief silence, another worker Nguyen owned up to eating at McDonald's once or twice a month, but not for a Big Mac or French fries. 'They have some surprisingly good food these days,' she said in a confessional whisper. 'But I would never be seen walking down the street with a McDonald's bag in my hand.' I asked why. 'Shame,' she replied. 'I don't know anyone who would feel differently.' (3) Speed and convenience matter as much as ever to American diners. But increasingly people also demand the information that places like Sweetgreen offer. They want to know what they are eating and how it was made; they prefer to watch as their food is prepared, see the ingredients, and have a sense of where it all came from. And they are willing to pay more for what they perceive to be healthier fare. (4) When I asked Dan Coudreaut, the company's executive chef and vice-president of culinary innovation, what mattered most to McDonald's, taste, price, or efficiency, he sighed. 'Our main job is to create value for our shareholders, for our company, for our restaurateurs,' he said. 'We are not a nonprofit organization and we are not married to any one area. We are married to being a successful business. Society is shifting in a major direction, so guess what—McDonald's is going to shift, too.' (5) The company is trying everything it can to win back deserters. Last month, in keeping with prevailing desires and current nutritional wisdom, McDonald's abandoned margarine for butter. The company announced recently that it would stop selling chickens that have been raised with antibiotics that could affect human health, and milk from cows that had been treated with growth hormones. They introduced low-calorie 'artisan grilled chicken' sandwiches and, this month, began serving breakfast all day—fulfilling a request that the Egg McMuffin crowd has been making for years. McDonald's has also jumped on the seasonal-food bandwagon (潮流), having sold about thirty-seven million Cuties, the brand of clementines that come with Happy Meals. (6) McDonald's describes all these changes as an attempt to 'reassert' itself as 'a modem, progressive burger company.' Nonetheless, daunting questions hover over its ambitious agenda, and over the entire industry. Can traditional restaurant chains, indelibly branded as places to eat cheap food fast, switch to healthier fare and stay profitable? And to what degree can companies like Sweetgreen thrive by offering a fresher, more nutritious alternative?

单选题 Tom gave me a new knife as ______ for the one he lost.

单选题 All the following participles (分词) functions as an attributive EXCEPT

单选题 How could Hitler's vast operation of highly-organized mass murder, which was not ______ to Jews, come about?