单选题Scratchy throats, stuffy noses and body aches all spell misery, but being able to tel1 if the cause is a cold or flu may make a difference in how long the misery lasts.
The American Lung Association (ALA) has issued new guidelines on combating colds and the flu, and one of the keys is being able to quickly tell the two apart. That"s because the prescription drugs available for the flu need to be taken soon after the illness sets in. As for colds, the sooner a person starts taking over-the-counter remedy, the sooner relief will come.
The common cold and the flu are both caused by viruses. More than 200 viruses can cause cold symptoms, while the flu is caused by three viruses—flu A, B and C. There is no cure for either illness, but the flu can be prevented by the flu vaccine, which is, for most people, the best way to fight the flu, according to the ALA.
But if the flu does strike, quick action can help. Although the flu and common cold have many similarities, there are some obvious signs to look for.
Cold symptoms such as stuffy nose, runny nose and scratchy throat typically develop gradually, and adults and teens often do not get a fever. On the other hand, fever is one of the characteristic features of the flu for all ages. And in general, flu symptoms including fever and chills, sore throat and body aches come on suddenly and are more severe than cold symptoms.
The ALA notes that it may be particularly difficult to tell when infants and preschool age children have the flu. It advises parents to call the doctor if their small children have flu-like symptoms.
Both cold and flu symptoms can be eased with over-the-counter medications as well. However, children and teens with a cold or flu should not take aspirin for pain relief because of the risk of Reye syndrome, a rare but serious condition of the liver and central nervous system.
There is, of course, no vaccine for the common cold. But frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with people who have colds can reduce the likelihood of catching one.
单选题 When, in the age of automation, man searches for a worker
to do the tedious, unpleasant jobs that are more or less impossible to
mechanize, he may very profitably consider the ape. If we
tackled the problem of breeding for brains with as much enthusiasm as we devote
to breeding dogs of surrealistic shapes, we could eventually produce assorted
models of useful primates, ranging in size from the gorilla down to the baboon
(狒狒), each adapted to a special kind of work. It is not putting too much strain
on the imagination to assume that geneticists could produce a super-ape, which
is able to understand some scores of words, and capable of being trained for
such jobs as picking fruit, cleaning up the litter in parks, shining shoes,
collecting garage, doing household chores, and even baby-sitting, although I
have known some babies I would not care to trust with a valuable ape.
Apes could do many jobs, such as cleaning streets and the more repetitive
types of agricultural work, without supervision, though they might need
protection from those {{U}}egregious{{/U}} specimens of human beings who think it
amusing to tease or bully anything they consider lower on the evolutionary
ladder. For other tasks, such as delivering papers and laboring on the docks,
our man-ape would have to work under human overseers; and, incidentally, I would
love to see the ending of the twenty-first century version of On the Waterfront
in which {{U}}the honest but hairy hero{{/U}} will drum on his chest
after—literally—taking the wicked labor leader apart. Once a
supply of nonhuman workers becomes available, a whole range of low IQ jobs could
be thankfully given up by mankind, to its great mental and physical advantage.
What is more, one of the problems which has plagued so many fictional Utopias
would be avoided: there would be none of the degradingly subhuman Epsilons of
Huxley's Brave New World to act as a permanent reproach to society, for there is
a profound moral difference between breeding sub-men and super-apes, though the
end products are much the same. The first would introduce a form of slavery, but
the second would be a biological triumph which could benefit both men and
animals.
单选题Over the last decade, Dr. Benjamin Van Voorhees has been trying to find the best way to teach coping strategies to adolescents who are at risk of suffering from severe depression. The idea is to help them keep depression at bay so that it doesn"t become a devastating part of their lives. The goal is to identify kids at risk and then use a combination of traditional counseling and Internet-based learning to keep off mental disorders and their accompanying medicines.
Van Voorhees said he wants to change the way doctors, especially pediatricians, deal with mental illness by moving the focus, which is now so heavily trained on treatment, to prevention. He said, "We"re trying to develop a type of behavioral vaccine that functions the same way vaccines work in fighting infections. We hope this approach will be simple, culturally acceptable, universally deployable—and inexpensive." He said that initial depressive episodes tend to strike between the ages of 13 and 17. Once an adolescent develops into severe depression, episodes can recur across his or her lifetime.
Van Voorhees said young people establish patterns of coping in adolescence and young adulthood. "There"s a period of plasticity in the brain during which it"s developing the capacity for learning new coping skills," he said. "You want to make youths elastic against mental disorders, and you try to give them ways to cope so that they don"t fall into substance abuse." His research has been testing the effectiveness of Internet use and other techniques to hone such skills.
Project CATCH-IT is a multimillion-dollar study. CATCH-IT includes an initial motivational interview with a physician to get the young person to understand the importance of the program. It also has a self-contained learning component on the Internet that focuses on changing behavior and improving cognitive thinking and social skills. The website, which has evolved over time, teaches plasticity skills in part by allowing patients to read stories about other teens to learn how they overcame adversity and became more successful in school, their relationships or on the job.
Van Voorhees said the goal is to reach as many young people as possible. They want to develop a model that will be embedded in primary care with pediatricians screening kids who are at risk for mental disorders and trying to prevent them ahead of time. Over the years CATCH-IT has shown some evidence of being effective. But in February a new study, called PATH, was begun to determine whether CATCH-IT does a better job of preventing depression than routine mental health care and health education that teens can find online. "With CATCH-IT alone, we saw depression dropping over the years, but we didn"t have anything to compare it to," said Monika Marko-Holguin, PATH"s project manager.
单选题 The American economy is growing, according to the most
recent statistics, at the high rate of 7%, and is in the middle of the largest
peacetime expansion in American history. We read in the newspapers that
practically everyone who wants a job can get one. Microsoft is running
advertisements in the New York Times practically begging Congress to issue more
visas for foreign computer and information technology workers.
In this environment, it is shocking that one group of Americans, people with
disabilities, have such a high level of unemployment: 30% are not employed—the
same percentage as when the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. Not only
did their employment and labor earnings fall during the recession of the early
1990s, but employment and earnings continued to fall during the long economic
expansion that followed. Many of these people are skilled professionals who are
highly marketable in today's economy. Part of the problem is
discrimination, and part recent court rulings favoring employers in ADA
lawsuits. Discrimination against people with disabilities is, unfortunately,
alive and well, despite the legal prohibitions against discrimination in hiring
people with disabilities. 79% of disabled people who are unemployed cite
discrimination in the workplace and lack of transportation as major factors that
prevent them from working; studies have also shown that people with disabilities
who find jobs earn less than their co-workers, and are less likely to be
promoted. Unfavorable court rulings have not been helpful,
either. Research by law professor Ruth Colker of Ohio State University has shown
that in the eight years after the ADA went into effect, employer-defendants
prevailed in more than 93% of the cases decided by trial. Of the cases appealed,
employers prevailed 84% of the time. Robert Burgdorf. Jr., who helped draft the
ADA, has written, "legal analysis has proceeded quite a way down the wrong
road." Disability activists and other legal scholars point out that Congress
intended the ADA as a national mandate for the ending of discrimination against
people with disabilities. Instead, what has occurred, in the words of one
writer, is that the courts "have narrowed the scope of the law, redefined
'disability', raised the price of access to justice and generally deemed
disability discrimination as not worthy of serious remedy." But
perhaps the greatest single problem is the federal government itself, where laws
and regulations designed to help disabled people actually provide an economic
disincentive to work. As Sen. Edward Kennedy wrote, "the high unemployment rate
among people receiving federal disability benefits is not because their federal
benefits programs have 'front doors that are too big', but because they have
'back doors that are too small'."
单选题New claims for unemployment insurance dipped last week, suggesting that companies are laying off fewer workers as the budding economic recovery unfolds. The Labor Department reported Thursday that for the work week ending April 27, new claims for jobless benefits went down by a seasonally adjusted 10,000 to 418,000, the lowest level since March 23. In another report, orders to US factories rose for the fourth straight month, a solid 0.4 percent rise in March. The figure was largely boosted by stronger demand for nondurable goods, such as food, clothes, paper products and chemicals. Total nondurable goods were up 1.6 percent in March, the biggest increase in two years. Orders also rose for some manufactured goods, including metals, construction machinery, household appliances and defense equipment. The report reinforces the view that the nation"s manufacturers—which sharply cut production and saw hundreds of thousands of jobs evaporate during the recession—are on the comeback trail. Stocks were rising again Thursday. In the first half-hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 43 points and the Nasdaq index was up 14 points.
In the jobless claims report, even with the decline, a government analyst said, the level was inflated as a result of a technical fluke. The distortion is coming from a requirement that laid-off workers seeking to take advantage of a federal extension for benefits must submit new claims. Congress recently passed legislation signed into law by President Bush that provided a 13-week extension of jobless benefits.
The fluke has clouded the layoffs picture for several weeks. But the government analyst said the refiling requirement is having much less of an effect on the claims numbers than in previous weeks. The more stable four-week moving average of new claims, which smoothes out weekly fluctuations, also fell last week to 435,750, the lowest level since the beginning of April. But the number of workers continuing to receive unemployment benefits rose to 3.8 million for the work week ending April 20, evidence that people who are out of work are having trouble finding new jobs.
Economists predict that job growth won"t be strong enough in the coming months to prevent the nation"s unemployment rate—now at 5.7 percent—from rising. Many economists are forecasting a rise in April"s jobless rate to 5.8 percent and estimating that businesses added around 55,000 jobs during the month. The government will release the April employment report Friday. Even as the economy bounces back from recession, some economists expect the jobless rate will peak to just over 6 percent by June. That"s because companies will be reluctant to quickly hire back laid-off workers until they are assured the recovery is here to stay. Given the fledgling rebound, many economists expect the Federal Reserve to leave short-term interest rates—now at 40-year lows—unchanged when it meets May 7. The Fed cut rates 11 times last year to rescue the economy from recession, which began in March 2001.
单选题Silicon Valley likes to think of itself as morally exceptional. When Google went public in 2004, the company"s founders penned a letter to prospective shareholders that has become the Internet industry"s version of the Magna Carta. In it, they pledged that Google was "not a conventional company" but one focused on "making the world a better place."
Though Silicon Valley"s newest billionaires may anoint themselves the saints of American capitalism, they"re beginning to resemble something else entirely:
robber barons
. Like their predecessors in railroads, steel, banking, and oil a century ago, Silicon Valley"s new entrepreneurs are harnessing technology to make the world more efficient. But along the way, that process is bringing great economic and labor dislocation, as well as an unequal share of the spoils.
Take Apple"s manufacturing practices in China. By systematically outsourcing the assembly of iPhones and other gadgets to contract manufacturers like China"s Foxconn, Apple has reduced its overall cost of production and increased profit margins for shareholders. That"s neither unique nor necessarily evil. It"s a practice regularly adopted by all kinds of industries. But establishing an arm"s-length commercial relationship does not absolve a company from moral responsibility for the way its chosen partners treat workers. Labor issues at Foxconn have attracted bad press for some time. It was not until that negative publicity on
New York Times
last year that Apple took more meaningful action, allowing the Fair Labor Association to conduct special audits of its suppliers" factories in China.
A bigger battle remains to be fought on the privacy front, where Silicon Valley"s misdemeanors are even more upsetting. Pushing the boundaries of what is generally considered acceptable, even decent, when it comes to exploiting personal information is a daily sport in the online world. That"s because a tweak here or there to the privacy settings of a social network or a tiny change to the code on a mobile application can mean a world of difference in the value of information an advertiser can access about a usually unaware user. Perhaps swayed by Silicon Valley"s altruistic spin or slow to catch up with its rapid growth, Washington has, up to now, largely left the industry to regulate itself on privacy. That"s clearly not working. Hardly a day passes without some new revelation of an Internet or mobile company stepping a byte too far into the private business of its customers.
The original robber barons had decent intentions when they built railroads to connect America"s emerging cities and drilled oil wells that fueled the nation"s growth, but their empires still needed to be regulated, reined in, and in some cases broken up by vigilant watchdogs. Lofty words and ideals are fine for motivating employees and even for spurring sales, but they can also serve as cover for motives that clash with the broader interests of consumers and society. We need more than fancy promises to ensure that the rise of the Silicon Valley engineer is good for the world.
单选题Companies have embarked on what looks like the beginnings of a re-run of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) wave that defined the second bubbly half of the 1990s. That period, readers might recall, was characterized by a collective splurge that saw the creation of some of the most indebted companies in history, many of which later went bankrupt or were themselves broken up. Wild bidding for telecoms, internet and media assets, not to mention the madness that was Daimler"s $40 billion motoring takeover in 1998-1999 of Chrysler or the Time- Warner/AOL mega-merger in 2000, helped to give mergers a thoroughly bad name. A consensus emerged that M&A was a great way for investment banks to reap rich fees, and a sure way for ambitious managers to betray investors by trashing the value of their shares.
Now M&A is back. Its return is a global phenomenon, but it is perhaps most striking in Europe, where so far this year there has been a stream of deals worth more than $600 billion in total, around 40% higher than in the same period of 2004. The latest effort came this week when France"s Saint-Gobain, a building-materials firm, unveiled the details of its ￡3.6 billion ($6.5 billion) hostile bid for BPB, a British rival. In the first half of the year, cross-border activity was up threefold over the same period last year. Even France Telecom, which was left almost bankrupt at the end of the last merger wave, recently bought Amena, a Spanish mobile operator.
Shareholder"s approval of all these deals raises an interesting question for companies everywhere: are investors right to think that these mergers are more likely to succeed than earlier ones? There are two answers. The first is that past mergers may have been judged too harshly. The second is that the present rash of European deals does look more rational, but—and the caveat is crucial—only so far. The pattern may not hold.
M&A"s poor reputation stems not only from the string of spectacular failures in the 1990s, but also from studies that showed value destruction for acquiring shareholders in 80% of deals. But more recent studies by economists have introduced a note of caution. Investors should look at the number of deals that succeed or fail (typically measured by the impact on the share price), rather than (as you might think) weighing them by size. For example, no one doubts that the Daimler-Chrysler merger destroyed value. The combined market value of the two firms is still below that of Daimler alone before the deal. This single deal accounted for half of all German M&A activity by value in 1998 and 1999, and probably dominated people"s thinking about mergers to the same degree. Throw in a few other such monsters and it is no wonder that broad studies have tended to find that mergers are a bad idea. The true picture is more complicated.
单选题As a giant of the stock market, Apple is unusual. For much of the past 20 years, three companies have alternated in the role of the largest on the American stock market: Exxon Mobil, General Electric and Microsoft. The first two are very big companies by Apple standards. But Apple offers the kind of growth prospects that the shareholders of Exxon Mobil and GE can only dream of. Its sales in the latest quarter were almost double those of the previous year, and forecasts for 2013 revenues are nearly treble those recorded in 2010. It is the epitome of the modern company: short on physical capital but long on brainpower.
So what does Apple"s dominance reveal about the economy and the stock market? First, it is a powerful reminder that the free market can still be remarkably innovative. In the past 11 years Apple has launched three products—the iPod, iPhone and iPad—that have created brand new markets, fulfilling desires that consumers did not even know they had. It is impossible to imagine any of those designs being dreamed up by a bureaucrat.
Second, it shows that
the internet industry has come of age
. The dotcom bubble of the late 1990s featured companies that were heavy on ideas but light on revenues or profits. When the bubble burst a decade ago, it was feared that the internet would savage margins by "commoditizing" devices like phones and personal computers. Apple has so far proved that it is possible to earn high margins with brilliant design and by offering consumers ways to access the internet effortlessly wherever they go. It has made the mobile era its own.
Third, Apple"s rise shows that, even in a period of austerity, consumers are willing to pay for the must-have gadget. The company is a huge beneficiary of globalization: able not only to source its products at low cost in Asia but to sell the finished goods there as well. A global elite is now willing to pay for the most desirable products, from luxury luggage to premium Scotch. And America"s soft power is still so strong that it can create aspiring brands for that elite.
But does Apple"s surge to preeminence indicate that the stock market is back to the insane days of the late 1990s? There are certainly warning signs. Brokers are competing to come up with the highest potential price target for Apple"s shares, and the announcement of a share buy-back should remind investors that companies have a tendency to purchase their own equity at market peaks. But when Cisco, a technology giant, was briefly worth more than $500 billion in 2000, its price-earnings ratio was above 100; Apple trades on only 22 times its 2011 profits. Its new dividend yield will be almost as generous as that of the overall market. Even if its shares turn out to be overvalued, this would be more like a pimple than a bubble.
单选题"Opinion" is a word that is often used carelessly today. It is used to refer to matters of taste, belief, and judgment. This casual use would probably cause little confusion if people didn"t attach too much importance to opinion. Unfortunately, most do attach great importance to it. "I have as much right to my opinion as you to yours," and "Everyone"s entitled to his opinion," are common expressions. In fact, anyone who would challenge another"s opinion is likely to be branded intolerant.
Is that label accurate? Is it intolerant to challenge another"s opinion? It depends on what definition of opinion you have in mind. For example, you may ask a friend "What do you think of the new Ford cars?" And he may reply, "In my opinion, they"re ugly." In this case, it would not only be intolerant to challenge his statement, but foolish. For it"s obvious that by opinion he means his personal preference, a matter of taste. And as the old saying goes, "It"s pointless to argue about matters of taste."
But consider this very different use of the term. A newspaper reports that the Supreme Court has delivered its opinion in a controversial case. Obviously the justices did not state their personal preferences, their mere likes and dislikes. They stated their considered judgment, painstakingly arrived at after thorough inquiry and deliberation.
Most of what is referred to as opinion falls somewhere between these two extremes. It is not an expression of taste. Nor is it careful judgment. Yet it may contain elements of both. It is a view or belief more or less casually arrived at, with or without examining the evidence.
Is everyone entitled to his opinion? Of course, this is not only permitted, but guaranteed. We are free to act on our opinions only so long as, in doing so, we do not harm others.
单选题Imagine a Briton"s new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and abandon his daily bottle of claret and nightly whisky. Confronting his enlarging gut, he may even promise to make his ten-mile round-trip commute by bike, not car.
What admirable goals. And since this gentleman"s annual vice bill comes to around 7,500 pounds, he will be well-rewarded for his virtue even before considering the effect on his health. But the Treasury might rejoice a little less. In the fiscal year 2010-11 nearly 10% of all taxes collected came from duty on alcohol, tobacco, and fuel as well as from vehicle excise duty, a tax that falls most heavily on the least efficient cars. You may say that New Year resolutions are notoriously short-lived, but the longer-run trend still looks bad for the exchequer. Because many vices are in constant decline, so are receipts, predicts the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Smoking rates have been falling for decades, attributed partly to high taxes, and partly to public health campaigns changing social mores and a smoking ban in workplaces introduced across Britain in 2007. The government could respond by increasing sin tax rates. But when duties rise, so do the incentives to get around them, by buying abroad or on the black market. This is particularly common with cigarettes, which are easy for individual smokers to import. In 2000 non-duty consumption reached a peak of 78%, a consequence of the weak euro as well as a sudden increase in taxes of inflation plus 5%.
Petrol taxes are leaking more quickly. As with smoking, behavior is changing: car and van mileage has fallen for four consecutive years, partly because petrol is so expensive and new vehicles have better engines. These trends, as well as the rise of electric and hybrid cars, are forecast to compress receipts from 1.8% of GDP in 2010 to just 1.1% in 2030.
There are, of course, advantages to Britons giving up their filthy habits. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Britain. It cost the National Health Service more than 5 billion pounds a year in 2005-06, some 5.5% of its budget at the time, according to an Oxford University study. But any benefit to the NHS may be short-lived. Those who do not perish from diseases associated with smoking are likely to die more slowly of age-related illnesses.
In moral terms, a decline in sin tax receipts suggests a job well done. But in fiscal terms, a hole is a hole. As the OBR sees it, falling Treasury income means Britons will be getting, in effect, an unannounced tax cut. Other taxes could therefore rise without leaving people worse off in aggregate. The maths makes sense. For the virtuous, though, being clobbered with new taxes may seem a rather poor reward.
写作题Suppose your class is to hold a charity sale foe kids in need of help. Write your classmates an email to
1) inform them about the details and encourage them to participate .
2) Don’t use your own name, use “Li Ming” instead. Don’t write your address.(10 points)
单选题Sport is heading for
an indissoluble marriage
with television and the passive spectator will enjoy a private paradise. All of this will be in the future of sport. The spectator (the television audience) will be the priority and professional clubs will have to readjust their structures to adapt to the new reality: sport as a business.
The new technologies will mean that spectators will no longer have to wait for broadcasts by the conventional channels. They will be the ones who decide what to see. And they will have to pay for it. In the United States the system of the future has already started: pay-as-you-view. Everything will be offered by television and the spectator will only have to choose. The review Sports
Illustrated
recently published a full profile of the life of the supporter at home in the middle of the next century. It explained that the consumers would be able to select their view of the match on a gigantic, flat screen occupying the whole of one wall, with images of a clarity which cannot be foreseen at present; they could watch from the trainer"s bench, from the stands just behind the batter in a game of baseball or from the helmet of the star player in an American football game. And at their disposal will be the same options the producer of the recorded program has: to select replays, to choose which camera to use and to decide on the sound-whether to hear the public, the players, the trainer and so on.
Many sports executives, largely too old and too conservative to feel at home with the new technologies, will believe that sport must control the expansion of television coverage in order to survive and ensure that spectators attend matches. They do not even accept the evidence which contradicts their view: while there is more basketball than ever on television, for example, it is also certain that basketball is more popular than ever.
It is also the argument of these sports executives that television is harming the modest team. This is true, but the future of those teams is also modest. They have reached their ceiling. It is the law of the market. The great events continually attract larger audience.
The world is being constructed on new technologies so that people can make the utmost use of their time and, in their home, have access to the greatest possible range of recreational activities. Sport will have to adapt itself to the new world.
The most visionary executives go further. Their philosophy is: rather than see television take over sport, why not have sports take over television?
单选题In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of
The Atlantic
, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, "a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines."
Davidson"s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and sagging middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the quantum advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign workers.
Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars. But there"s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes, "In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs—about 6 million in total—disappeared."
Besides, what the new technology won"t do in an above average way a Chinese worker will. Consider this paragraph from an article in
The Times
about why Apple does so much of its manufacturing in China: "Apple had redesigned the iPhone"s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly-line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the Chinese plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company"s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within haft an hour started a 12-hour shift. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. "The speed and flexibility is breathtaking," the executive said. "There"s no American plant that can match that.""
There will always be change—new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I. T. revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average. Here are the latest unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Americans over 25 years old: those with less than a high school degree, 13.8 percent; those with a high school degree and no college, 8.7 percent; those with some college or associate degree, 7.7 percent; and those with bachelor"s degree or higher, 4.1 percent.
In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G. I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.
单选题With the debt crisis and the weakening economy fresh on their minds, most Americans have probably concluded that government, as a rule, cannot manage money responsibly. But it can. Just look at Montana. For six years it has been one of the only states in America with a budget surplus: this year it is a record of $433 million, proportionally equivalent to a federal surplus of $858 billion. Thus we"ve been able to cut taxes, invest in education and infrastructure and keep essential services intact. We recently got our first bond rating upgrade in 26 years.
How do we accomplish what most states and the federal government cannot? I like to say we run government like a ranch. In ranching, you either pinch pennies or go bankrupt. We do the same in government. For one thing, we challenge every expense. If it isn"t absolutely necessary, we eliminate it. Little things added up: we renegotiated state contracts, cut our energy consumption by 20 percent, auctioned off state vehicles and canceled building projects and computer upgrades. The federal budget contains thousands of similar line items. A government serious about tightening its belt would eliminate them all.
But we don"t just cut costs. Like good ranchers, we also leave some grain in the barn in case of drought. When times were good, we stored away cash in a special savings account. The account proved to be a big help in getting us through the recession in solid financial shape. I cannot recall the federal government"s ever banking surplus funds in a protected account, even during the surplus-laden 1990s. If Washington ever digs out of the current hole and runs a cash balance, Congress should likewise put some grain in the barn.
And even as we"ve cut costs and stored away money, we"ve followed another ranching principle: treat your ranch hands with respect. Like other states, we"ve had to freeze employee pay and reduce the work force. But as in any good organization, many of the best solutions for cutting costs come from state employees. Some look at payroll as a burden; we look at it as human capital, and we work hard to keep up morale in tough times. So when we cut the state payroll, I cut my own salary. Sadly, many politicians, especially in Washington, seem to take advantage of the opportunity to trash government workers. This is just cheap and ugly scapegoating. More to the point, it does nothing to produce bottom-line results.
Finally, we don"t spend money until we"ve found the lowest price. When the real estate market softened, we told commercial landlords who rented space to the state that if we didn"t see rent reductions, we"d move to cheaper premises when our leases were up.
There are savings to be found everywhere in government. Now that federal spending is the country"s top issue, Washington should try doing what any rancher or family household does.
单选题As one of a rare group of economists who believe that "manufacturing matters" for the health of the American economy, I was heartened to hear President Obama emphasize manufacturing in his State of the Union address. During the last two years, the manufacturing sector has led the economic recovery, expanding by about 10 percent and adding more than 300,000 jobs. Though there are economists who do not share my view, I believe that a strong manufacturing sector matters for several reasons.
First, economists agree that the United States must rebalance growth away from consumption and imports financed by foreign borrowing toward exports. Manufactured goods account for about 86 percent of merchandise exports from the United States and about 60 percent of exports of goods and services combined. American manufacturing exports are becoming more attractive as a result of rising wages abroad, the decline in the dollar"s value, increasing supply-chain coordination and transportation costs, and strong productivity growth in American manufacturing.
Germany and Japan, two high-wage countries, have maintained substantial shares of manufacturing in their economies, and are major exporters of manufactured goods to emerging market economies. Like manufacturing in these countries, manufacturing in the United States can win larger shares of global export markets with the right policies in place.
Second, on average manufacturing jobs are high-productivity, high value-added jobs with good pay and benefits. In 2009, the average manufacturing worker earned $74,447 in annual pay and benefits compared with $63,122 for the average non-manufacturing worker. In that year, only about 9 percent of the work force was employed in manufacturing, down from about 13 percent in 2000. The fall in manufacturing employment during the 2000s was a major factor behind growing wage inequality and the polarization of job opportunities between the top and bottom of the wage and skill distribution, with a hollowing out of middle-income jobs.
Third, manufacturing matters because of its substantial role in innovation. American leadership in science and technology remains highly dependent on R. & D. investment by manufacturing companies, and the social returns to such investment are substantial, far exceeding the returns to the companies that fund it.
American multinational companies that account for about 84 percent of all private-sector business R. & D. in the United States still place about 84 percent of their R. & D. activities in the United States, often in clusters around research universities. But this share is gradually declining as American companies shift some of their R. & D. to Asia in response to rapidly growing markets, ample supplies of technical workers and engineers and generous subsidies. Congress"s failure to extend and broaden the R. & D. tax credit, as President Obama has urged, is also encouraging companies in the United States to look to other countries offering far more generous R. & D. tax incentives.
单选题Biologists estimate that as many as 2 million lesser prairie chickens—a kind of bird living on stretching grasslands—once lent red to the often grey landscape of the midwestern and southwestern United States. But just some 22,000 birds remain today, occupying about 16% of the species" historic range.
The crash was a major reason the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decided to formally list the bird as threatened. "The lesser prairie chicken is in a desperate situation," said USFWS Director Daniel Ashe. Some environmentalists, however, were disappointed. They had pushed the agency to designate the bird as "endangered", a status that gives federal officials greater regulatory power to crack down on threats. But Ashe and others argued that the "threatened" tag gave the federal government flexibility to try out new, potentially less confrontational conservations approaches. In particular, they called for forging closer collaborations with western state governments, which are often uneasy with federal action, and with the private landowners who control an estimated 95% of the prairie chicken"s habitat.
Under the plan, for example, the agency said it would not prosecute landowner or businesses that unintentionally kill, harm, or disturb the bird, as long as they had signed a range-wide management plan to restore prairie chicken habitat. Negotiated by USFWS and the states, the plan requires individuals and businesses that damage habitat as part of their operations to pay into a fund to replace every acre destroyed with 2 new acres of suitable habitat. The fund will also be used to compensate landowners who set aside habitat. USFWS also set an interim goal of restoring prairie chicken populations to an annual average of 67,000 birds over the next 10 years. And it gives the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), a coalition of state agencies, the job of monitoring progress. Overall, the idea is to let "states remain in the driver"s seat for managing the species," Ashe said.
Not everyone buys the win-win rhetoric. Some Congress members are trying to block the plan, and at least a dozen industry groups, four states, and three environmental groups are challenging it in federal court. Not surprisingly, industry groups and states generally argue it goes too far, environmentalists say it doesn"t go far enough. "The federal government is giving responsibility for managing the bird to the same industries that are pushing it to extinction." says biologist Jay Lininger.
单选题At the present time, 98 percent of the world energy consumption comes from stored sources, such as fossil fuels or nuclear fuel. Only hydroelectric and wood energy represent completely renewable sources on ordinary time scales. Discovery of large additional fossil fuel reserves, solution of the nuclear safety and waste disposal problems, or the development of controlled thermonuclear fusion will provide only a short-term solution to the world"s energy crisis. Within about 100 years, the thermal pollution resulting from our increased energy consumption will make solar energy a necessity at any cost.
Man"s energy consumption is currently about one part in ten thousand that of the energy we receive from the sun. However, it is growing at a 5 percent rate, of which about 2 percent represents a population growth and 3 percent a per capita energy increase. If this growth continues, within 100 years our energy consumption will be about 1 percent of the absorbed solar energy, enough to increase the average temperature of the earth by about one degree centigrade if stored energy continues to be our predominant source. This will be the point at which there will be significant effects in our climate, including the melting of the polar ice caps, a phenomenon which will raise the level of the oceans and flood parts of our major cities. There is positive feedback associated with this process, since the polar ice cap contributes to the partial reflectivity of the energy arriving from the sun. As the ice caps begin to melt, the reflectivity will decrease, thus heating the earth still further.
It is often stated that the growth rate will decline or that energy conservation measures will preclude any long-range problem. Instead, this only postpones the problem by a few years. Conservation by a factor of two together with a maintenance of the 5 percent growth rate delays the problem by only 14 years. Reduction of the growth rate to 4 percent postpones the problem by only 25 years; in addition, the inequities in standards of living throughout the world will provide pressure toward an increase in growth rate, particularly if cheap energy is available. The problem of a changing climate will not be evident until perhaps ten years before it becomes critical due to the nature of an exponential growth rate together with the normal annual weather variations. This may be too short a period to circumvent the problem by converting to other energy sources, so advance planning is a necessity.
The only practical means of avoiding the problem of thermal pollution appears to be the use of solar energy. Using the solar energy before it is dissipated to heat does not increase the earth"s energy balance. The cost of solar energy is extremely favorable now, particularly when compared to the cost of relocating many of our major cities.
单选题The outbreak of swine flu that was first detected in MEXICO was declared a global epidemic on June, 11, 2009. It is the first worldwide epidemic
1
by the World Health Organization in 41 years.
The heightened alert
2
an emergency meeting with flu experts in Geneva that assembled after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising
3
in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere.
But the epidemic is "
4
" in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization"s director general,
5
the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the
6
of any medical treatment.
The outbreak came to global
7
in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noted an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths
8
healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to
9
in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world.
In the United States, new cases seemed to fade
10
warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was
11
flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the
12
tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) HIN1, not seasonal flu. In the U.S., it has
13
more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6, 000 hospitalizations.
Federal health officials
14
Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began
15
orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is
16
ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those
17
doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not
18
for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other
19
. But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups, health care workers, people
20
infants and healthy young people.
单选题Spain"s government is now championing a cause called "
right to be forgotten
". It has ordered Google to stop indexing information about 90 citizens who filed formal complaints with its Data Protection Agency. All 90 people wanted information deleted from the Web. Among them was a victim of domestic violence who discovered that her address could easily be found through Google. Another, well into middle age now, thought it was unfair that a few computer key strokes could unearth an account of her arrest in her college days.
They might not have received much of a hearing in the United States, where Google is based and where courts have consistently found that the right to publish the truth about someone"s past supersedes any right to privacy. But here, as elsewhere in Europe, an idea has taken hold—individuals should have a "right to be forgotten" on the Web.
In fact, the phrase "right to be forgotten" is being used to cover abatch of issues, ranging from those in the Spanish case to the behavior of companies seeking to make money from private information that can be collected on the Web.
Spain"s Data Protection Agency believes that search engines have altered the process by which most data ends up forgotten—and therefore adjustments need to be made. The deputy director of the agency, Jesús Rubí, pointed to the official government gazette公报), which used to publish every weekday, including bankruptcy auctions, official pardons, and who passed the civil service exams. Usually 220 pages of fine print, it quickly ended up gathering dust on various backroom shelves. The information was still there, but not easily accessible. Then two years ago, the 350-year-old publication went online, making it possible for embarrassing information—no matter how old—to be obtained easily.
The publisher of the government publication, Fernando Pérez, said it was meant to foster transparency. Lists of scholarship winners, for instance, make it hard for the government officials to steer all the money to their own children. "But maybe," he said, "there is information that has a life cycle and only has value for a certain time."
Many Europeans are broadly uncomfortable with the way personal information is found by search engines and used for commerce. When ads pop up on one"s screen, clearly linked to subjects that are of interest to him, one may find it Orwellian. A recent poll conducted by the European Union found that most Europeans agree. Three out of four said they were worried about how Internet companies used their information and wanted the right to delete personal data at any time. Ninety percent wanted the European Union to take action on the right to be forgotten.
Experts say that Google and other search engines see some of these court cases as anassault on a principle of law already established—that search engines are essentially not responsible for the information they corral from the Web, and hope the Spanish court agrees. The companies believe if there are privacy issues, the complainants should address those who posted the material on the Web. But some experts in Europe believe that search engines should probably be reined in. "They are the ones that are spreading the word. Without them no one would find these things."
单选题Low-level slash-and-burn farming doesn"t harm rainforest. On the contrary, it helps farmers and improves forest soils. This is the unorthodox view of a German soil scientist who has shown that burnt clearings in the Amazon, dating back more than 1,000 years, helped create patches of rich, fertile soil that farmers still benefit from today.
Most rainforest soils are thin and poor because they lack minerals and because the heat and heavy rainfall destroy most organic matter in the soils within four years of it reaching the forest floor. This means topsoil contains few of the ingredients needed for long-term successful farming.
But Bruno Glaser, a soil scientist of the University of Bayreuth, has studied unexpected patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon. These soils contain lots of organic matter.
Glaser has shown that most of this fertile organic matter comes from "black carbon" —the organic particles from camp fires and charred wood left over from thousands of years of slash-and-burn farming. "The soils, known as Terra Preta, contained up to 70 times more black carbon than the surrounding soil." says Glaser.
Unburnt vegetation rots quickly, but black carbon persists in the soil for many centuries. Radiocarbon dating shows that the charred wood in Terra Preta soils is typically more than 1,000 years old.
"Slash-and-burn farming can be good for soils provided it doesn"t completely burn all the vegetation, and leaves behind charred wood," says Glaser. "It can be better than manure." Burning the forest just once can leave behind enough black carbon to keep the soil fertile for thousands of years. And rainforests easily regrow after small-scale clearing. Contrary to the conventional view that human activities damage the environment, Glaser says: "Black carbon combined with human wastes is responsible for the richness of Terra Preta soils."
Terra Preta soils turn up in large patches all over the Amazon, where they are highly prized by farmers. All the patches fall within 500 square kilometers in the central Amazon. Glaser says the widespread presence of pottery confirms the soil"s human origins.
The findings add weight to the theory that large areas of the Amazon have recovered so well from past periods of agricultural use that the regrowth has been mistaken by generations of biologists for" virgin" forest.
During the past decade, researchers have discovered hundreds of large earth works deep in the jungle. They are up to 20 meters high and cover up to a square kilometer. Glaser claims that these earth works, built between AD 400 and 1400, were at the heart of urban civilizations. Now it seems the richness of the Terra Preta soils may explain how such civilizations managed to feed themselves.
单选题 Researchers are finding that boys and girls really are from
two different planets. Boys and girls have different "crisis points", experts
say, stages in their emotional and social development where things can go very
wrong. Until recently, girls got all the attention. But boys are much more
likely than girls to have discipline problems at school and to be diagnosed with
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Boys far outnumber girls in special-education
classes. They're also more likely to commit violent crimes and end up in
jail. Even normal boy behavior has come to be considered
pathological (病态的) in the wake of the feminist movement. An abundance of
physical energy and the urge to conquer — these are normal male characteristics,
and in an earlier age they were good things, even essential to survival. "If
Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer were alive today," says Michael Gurian, author of The
Wonder of Boys, "we'd say they had ADD." He says one of the new insights we're
gaining about boys is a very old one: boys will be boys. "They are who they
are," says Gurian, "and we need to love them for who they are. Let's not try to
{{U}}rewire{{/U}} them." But what exactly is the essential nature
of boys? Even as infants, boys and girls behave differently. A recent study at
Children's Hospital in Boston found that boy babies are more emotionally
expressive; girls are more reflective. (That means boy babies tend to cry when
they're unhappy; girl babies suck their thumbs) This could indicate that girls
are innately more able to control their emotions. Boys have higher levels of
testosterone and lower levels of neurotransmitter serotonin, which inhabits
aggression and impulsivity. That may help explain why more males than females
carry through with suicide or become alcoholics. There's
struggle — a desire and need for warmth on the one hand and a pull toward
independence on the other. Boys are going through what psychologists long ago
declared an integral part of growing up: individualization and disconnection
from parents, especially mothers. But now some researchers think that process is
too abrupt. When boys repress normal feelings like love because of social
pressure, says William Pollack, head of the Center for Men at Boston's McLean
Hospital, "they've lost contact with the genuine nature of whom they are and
what they feel. Boys are in a silent crisis. The only time we notice it is when
they pull the trigger."
问答题Business is guarding against harder times. The biggest problem is the euro crisis, which is causing damage to Germany's trading partners. Industrial orders from the euro zone sharply declined by 12.1% in September. Demand will also be reduced from Asia and eastern Europe, which have been Germany's fastest-growing markets. On November 9th the government's advisory council of economic "wise men" predicted that growth would shrink from 3 % this year to 0.9% in 2012.
Rising unemployment would jeopardise Mrs Merkel's chances for re-election in September 2013. Perhaps for that reason, most economists are betting that Germany will eventually do whatever is necessary to end the crisis. The surest way is for the European Central Bank to buy the debt of fragile countries like Italy, a notion that terrifies Germans, still impressed by their grandparents' memories of hyperinflation. If that is what the bank's new president decides to do, Mrs Merkel may not stand in the way.
问答题Directions:
Suppose you want to apply for the following post/position: Waiter/waitress required for evening work. Write a letter:
1) show your interest, and describe your previous experience,
2) explain why you would be suitable for the job.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
单选题It"s true that high-school coding classes aren"t essential for learning computer science in college. Students without experience can catch up after a few introductory courses, said Tom Cortina, the assistant dean at Carnegie Mellon"s School of Computer Science.
However, Cortina said, early exposure is beneficial. When younger kids learn computer science, they learn that it"s not just a confusing, endless string of letters and numbers—but a tool to build apps, or create artwork, or test hypotheses. It"s not as hard for them to transform their thought processes as it is for older students. Breaking down problems into bite-sized chunks and using code to solve them becomes normal. Giving more children this training could increase the number of people interested in the field and help fill the jobs gap, Cortina said.
Students also benefit from learning something about coding before they get to college, where introductory computer-science classes are packed to the brim, which can drive the less-experienced or -determined students away.
The Flatiron School, where people pay to learn programming, started as one of the many coding bootcamps that"s become popular for adults looking for a career change. The high-schoolers get the same curriculum, but "we try to gear lessons toward things they"re interested in," said Victoria Friedman, an instructor. For instance, one of the apps the students are developing suggests movies based on your mood.
The students in the Flatiron class probably won"t drop out of high school and build the next Facebook. Programming languages have a quick turnover, so the "Ruby on Rails" language they learned may not even be relevant by the time they enter the job market. But the skills they learn—how to think logically through a problem and organize the results—apply to any coding language, said Deborah Seehorn, an education consultant for the state of North Carolina.
Indeed, the Flatiron students might not go into IT at all. But creating a future army of coders is not the sole purpose of the classes. These kids are going to be surrounded by computers—in their pockets, in their offices, in their homes—for the rest of their lives. The younger they learn how computers think, how to coax the machine into producing what they want—the earlier they learn that they have the power to do that—the better.
问答题Ms. Mayer's move is not just a bad idea in itself but also a naive notion. Flexible employers help women run families and jobs simultaneously. Strict working rules make combining the two impossible or unpleasant. To be fair, as somebody who took two weeks off to have a baby, Ms. Mayer is hardly asking others to do what she would not; but then she has eased the pain of separation from her child by installing a nursery next to her office. Yahoo's less privileged women may place it to a friendlier organization.
But this is not just about women. A well-managed company's workers want to be productive, and managers trust them to decide how and where they will perform best. If that's not happening, the boss needs to find out why. You can confine a Yahoo to his desk, but you can't make him feel the busy atmosphere.
问答题Directions:
Write an essay to talk about beautiful soul according to the directions below:
1) State your own idea about beautiful soul;
2) Use two opposite examples to stress your idea;
3) Give a summary in the end;
4) You should write about 150 words.
问答题Directions:
Write an essay based on the following table. In your writing, you should
1) describe the table, and
2) give your comments.
You should write at least 150 words.
Write your essay on the ANSWER SHEET.
Underground Railway System
City
Date opened
Kilometers of route
Passengers per year
(in million)
Los Angeles
2001
28
50
Kyoto
1981
11
45
Washington DC
1976
126
144
Tokyo
1927
155
1927
Paris
1900
199
1191
London
1863
394
775
问答题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowinggraph.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthegraph,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题How often have read that America's education system, is a failure? It has a long way to go, but it has started to improve. This is crucial because differentials in lifetime earnings by level of education are widening. Driven by globalization and technology, labor markets are demanding higher and higher levels of skills. Therefore, to improve incomes for younger Americans, there must be better educational outcomes.
For 25 years, those outcomes were stagnant. High school graduation rates had fallen to 60% or lower in many large cities and rural areas. And just over half of first-year college students would graduate within six years. These are poor results by the standards of advanced countries. But at the beginning of 2006, the decline began to reverse. High school completion rates are now up almost 10 points, crossing 80% for the first time.
写作题Directions:
Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to
1) Accept the invitation, and
2) Introduce the key points of your presentation.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use “Li Ming”instead.
Do not write your address. (10points).
问答题They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success, not to substitute words for action, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others ; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.
They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity.
单选题War has escaped the battlefield and now can, with modern guidance systems on missiles, touch virtually every square yard of the earth"s surface. It no longer involves only the military profession, but also entire civilian populations. Nuclear weapons have made major war unthinkable. We are forced, however, to think about the unthinkable because a nuclear war could come by accident or miscalculation. We must accept the paradox of maintaining a capacity to fight such a war so that we will never have to do so.
War has also lost most of its utility in achieving the traditional goals of conflict. Control of territory carries with it the obligation to provide subject peoples certain administrative, health, education, and other social services; such obligations far outweigh the benefits of control. If the ruled population is ethnically or racially different from the rulers, tensions and chronic unrest often exist which further reduce the benefits and increase the costs of domination. Large populations no longer necessarily enhance state power and, in the absence of high levels of economic development, can impose severe burdens on food supply, jobs, and the broad range of services expected of modern governments. The benefits of forcing another nation to surrender its wealth are vastly outweighed by the benefits of persuading that nation to produce and exchange goods and services.
Making war has been one of the most persistent of human activities in the 8 centuries since men and women settled in cities and became thereby "civilized", but the modernization of the past 80 years has fundamentally changed the role and function of war. In pre-modernized societies, successful warfare brought significant material rewards, the most obvious of which were the stored wealth of the defeated. Equally important was human labor—control over people as slaves—and the productive capacity of agricultural lands and mines.
Warfare was also the most complex, broad-scale and demanding activity of premodernized people. The challenges of leading men into battle, organizing, moving and supporting armies, attracted the talents of the most vigorous, enterprising, intelligent and imaginative men in the society. "Warrior" and "statesman" were usually synonymous, and the military was one of the few professions in which an able, ambitious boy of humble origin could rise to the top. In the broader cultural context, war was accepted in the premodernized society as a part of the human condition, a mechanism of change, and an unavoidable, even noble, aspect of life. The excitement and drama of war made it a vital part of literature and legends.
问答题Directions:
You are the president of a company. Write a memo to Percy Shelley, the vicepresident on the employee"s training on computer:
1) the need to train the employees,
2) detailed information, and
3) ask him to write a plan.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your name in the memo. Use "Li Ming" instead.
英译汉My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realised that I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be absolutely honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream-I knew that no one, apart from myself, could imagine me in the fashion industry at all!
写作题Writeanessaybasedonthechartbelow.Inyourwriting,youshould 1)interpretthechart,and 2)giveyourcomments. Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)
写作题
写作题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould 1)interpretthechart,and 2)giveyourcomments. Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET(15points)
写作题Suppose your university is going to host a summer camp for high school students. Write a notice to
1)briefly introduce the camp activities, and
2)call for volunteers.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your name or the name of your university.
Do not write your address.(10 points)
写作题Directions: Suppose you are going to study abroad and share an apartment with John, a local student. Write him to email to
1)tell him about your living habits, and
2)ask for advice about living there.
You should write about 100 words on answer sheet.
Do not use your own name.
写作题Directions
Suppose you have found something wrong with the electronic dictionary that you bought from an onlin store the other day ,Write an email to the customer service center to
1)make a complaint and
2)demand a prompt solution
You should write about 100words on ANSERE SHEET 2
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter ,Use "zhang wei "instead .
写作题
单选题With just one week until Christmas, retailers are rolling out shopper-baiting strategies to attract procrastinators, deal-hunters and people who just want a few extra Christmas gifts.
Strategies include offering extended shopping hours, free shipping, last-minute-shopping ad campaigns and social media reminders that time is ticking away.
The week leading up to Christmas is usually when consumers open their wallets wide—the Saturday before the holiday traditionally being the biggest spending day behind Black Friday, according to shopper analytics firm Shopper Trak. Four of the 10 busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, Shopper Trak predicts.
This holiday shopping season is shorter than last, with six fewer days—translating into just four weekends.
There will be "high levels of in-store shopper activity" the weekend before Christmas, says Shopping Trak founder Bill Martin. Here"s how retailers are trying to get the attention of gift buyers:
Going social in their countdown warnings.
Companies are using social media to remind customers that Christmas is coming and to offer gift suggestions. Best Buy is using the Twitter tag "Last Minute Gifts" to promote its goods and on Tuesday evening hosted a Google Hangout chat with the last-minute gift theme.
Targeting procrastinators.
On Wednesday, J. C. Penney launches a "men in panic" TV ad. In it, a desperate man walk by a store as a small choir sings "point him to the jewelry so he won"t buy a "vacuum"".
Offering free shipping.
Many retailers, including J. C. Penney, have embraced Wednesday as "Free Shipping Day" —no minimum order, and delivery by Christmas Eve is guaranteed. FreeShippingDay.com has a list of nearly 900 participating merchants.
Extending store hours.
Nordstrom, Target and Toys R Us all have longer hours now or coming up. Toys R Us will be open around the clock for 87 continuous hours beginning at 6 a. m. Saturday, Dec. 21, through 9 p.m. Christmas Eve. "Expanded hours at this time of year have proven to be very popular with customers in the past, but with the shortened shopping window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and no time left to procrastinate, we expect to see larger crowds at all hours." says company spokeswoman Linda.
写作题writeanessaybasedonthefollowingtable.Inyourwritingyoushould 1)describethetable,and 2)giveyourcomments Youshouldwriteatleast150words(15points)
问答题Directions:
Suppose you want to study at a certain foreign university. Write a letter to:
1) Ask about the situations there,
2) Ask about qualifications requirements and fees.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
完形填空Happypeopleworkdifferently.Theyremoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsuggeststhathappinessmightinfluence1firmswork,too. Companieslocatedinplacewithhappierpeopleinvestmore,accordingtoarecentresearchpaper.2,firmsinhappyplacesspendmoreonRD(researchanddevelopment).Thatsbecausehappinessislinkedtothekindoflonger-termthinking3formakinginvestmentforthefuture. Theresearcherswantedtoknowifthe4andinclinationforrisk-takingthatcomewithhappinesswould5thewaycompaniesinvested.SotheycomparedU.S.citiesaveragehappiness6byGalluppollingwiththeinvestmentactivityofpubliclytradedfirmsinthoseareas. 7enough,firmsinvestmentandRDintensitywerecorrelatedwiththehappinessoftheareainwhichtheywere8.Butitisreallyhappinessthatslinkedtoinvestment,orcouldsomethingelseabouthappiercities9whyfirmstherespendmoreonRD?Tofindout,theresearchescontrolledforvarious10thatmightmakefirmsmorelikelytoinvestlikesize,industry,andsales-and-andforindicatorsthataplacewas11tolivein,likegrowthinwagesorpopulation.Theylinkbetweenhappinessandinvestmentgenerally12evenafteraccountingforthesethings. Thecorrelationbetweenhappinessandinvestmentwasparticularlystrongforyoungerfirms,whichtheauthors13tolessconfineddecisionmakingprocessandthepossiblepresenceofyoungerandless14managerswhoaremorelikelytobeinfluencedbysentiment.Therelationshipwas15strongerinplaceswherehappinesswasspreadmore16.Firmsseemtoinvestmoreinplaces. 17thisdoesntprovethathappinesscausesfirmstoinvestmoreortotakealonger-termview,theauthorsbelieveitatleast18atthatpossibility.Itsnothardtoimaginethatlocalcultureandsentimentwouldhelp19howexecutivesthinkaboutthefuture.Itsurelyseemsplausiblethathappypeoplewouldbemoreforward-thinkingandcreativeand20RDmorethantheaverage,saidoneresearcher.
问答题The Chinese new year is a time of family reunions. But Mr. Xiao is preparing to spend his sixth new year without his son, who was abducted (诱拐) in 2007 by suspected child traffickers. China's one-child policy has fuelled demand for children, thousands of whom are snatched and sold every year to desperate, usually boyless, couples. Spurred (刺激) by the campaigning of parents like Mr. Xiao, the government is starting to pay more attention to the crime. But curbing it is proving tough.
Mr. Xiao has been trying the hard way to raise awareness of the crime; driving around the country in a minivan covered with posters of missing children. Mr. Xiao, who lives in a village near Tongzhou, one of Beijing's satellite towns, says he has spent as much as 400,000 yuan ($64,300) of his own money on the project. He says there are other parents elsewhere in China who tour the country in similarly bedecked (装饰的) vehicles.
问答题Directions:
Write an essay based on the following table. In your writing, you should
1) describe the table, and
2) give your comments.
You should write at least 150 words.
Write your essay on the ANSWER SHEET.
Percentage of
households with
consumer durables
1990
1993
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
Television
90
92
93
93
96
97
98
Vacuum cleaner
83
86
90
91
92
93
94
Refrigerator
72
81
87
90
92
93
96
Washing machine
66
70
73
80
85
87
90
Telephone
31
42
70
82
88
95
95
单选题Introspection is kind of a drag. It requires unpleasant acts like "thinking" and "talking about emotions," and it can rarely be done while watching TV. But like it or not, more and more workers are taking time to reflect on what they do for a living, seeking jobs that aren"t just a means to a paycheck but the fulfilment of some form of calling. Can this supposedly enlightening feeling that your career is "a calling" be a bad thing?
Teresa Cardador, an assistant professor in the school of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois recently co-authored a paper in the Journal of Career Assessment that reviewed research on people who find meaning and a sense of purpose in their work. "There has become this idealized notion of work," Cardador said. "A lot of books and stories in the popular press capture this idea of an idealized orientation toward work. But there"s increasing evidence that suggests that despite the perceived desirability, it"s not always beneficial." In a nutshell, what Cardador found is that people who view their work as a calling can get too wrapped up in the job, to the point where it becomes counterproductive.
Some people burn out—it"s called "the fall from the call." Sometimes the person with the calling believes he or she is the only one qualified to handle the work, and that can cause strained relationships with co-workers. Also, the intense focus on work can be depleting, leaving a worker without enough energy to maintain good relationships outside the office. However, "callings can be healthy when individuals inspire and connect with others at work," Cardador said.
Between constantly evolving technology and downsizing that requires more of individual workers, it"s critical that a worker accept the fact that her or his job tasks may not always be the same. We have to be flexible nowadays, even if certain tasks don"t fit our idealized vision of the job. The study said. "People with rigid work identities have a single way of viewing who they are and what they do at work and are unwilling or unable to bend this image to fit with the reality of their work situation. In so doing, they are less able to account for the needs and interests of others in the workplace."
Just because you feel passionate about what you do doesn"t mean you can"t do other things that contribute to the greater good of your organization. You have to step back and examine how you"re handling your work, making sure, in the simplest of terms, that you"re not unwittingly being a selfish jerk. After all, we work, predominantly, because there are no money trees to harvest. The hope is that our labor lets us build the lives we want. If that comes with a feeling of fulfillment, fantastic.
完形填空Inourcontemporaryculture，theprospectofcommunicatingwith-orevenlookingat-astrangerisvirtuallyunbearableEveryonearoundusseemstoagreebythewaytheyfiddlewiththeirphones，evenwithouta1underground. Itsasadreality-ourdesiretoavoidinteractingwithotherhumanbeings-becausetheres2tobegainedfromtalkingtothestrangerstandingbyyou.Butyouwouldntknowit，3intoyourphone.Thisuniversalarmorsendsthe4：Pleasedontapproachme. Whatisitthatmakesusfeelweneedtohide5ourscreens? Oneanswerisfear,accordingtoJonWortmann,executivementalcoachWefearrejection，orthatourinnocentsocialadvanceswillbe6ascreep,WefearweIIbe7WefearweIIbedisruptiveStrangersareinherently8tous，sowearemorelikelytofeel9whencommunicatingwiththemcomparedwithourfriendsandacquaintancesToavoidthisanxiety,we10toourphones.Phonesbecomeoursecurityblanket，Wortmannsays.Theyareourhappyglassesthatprotectusfromwhatweperceiveisgoingtobemore11. Butonceweripoffthebandaid，tuckoursmartphonesinourpocketsandlookup，itdoesnt12sobad.Inone2011experiment，behavioralscientistsNicholasEpleyandJulianaSchroederaskedcommuterstodotheunthinkable:Starta13.TheyhadChicagotraincommuterstalktotheirfellow14.WhenDr.EpleyandMs.Schroederaskedotherpeopleinthesametrainstationto15howtheywouldfeelaftertalkingtoastranger,thecommutersthoughttheir16wouldbemorepleasantiftheysatontheirown,theNewYorkTimessummarizes.Thoughtheparticipantsdidntexpectapositiveexperience,afterthey17withtheexperiment,notasinglepersonreportedhavingbeensnubbed.18,thesecommuteswerereportedlymoreenjoyablecomparedwiththosesanscommunication,whichmakesabsolutesense,19humanbeingsthriveoffofsocialconnections.Itsthat20:Talkingtostrangerscanmakeyoufeelconnected.
英译汉I can pick a date from the past 53 years and know instantly where I was , what happened in the news and even the day of the week. I’ve been able to do this since I was four.
I never feel overwhelmed with the amount of information my brain absorbs my mind seems to be able to cope and the information is stored away reatly. When I think of a sad memory, I do what everyone does- try to put it to one side. I don’t think it’s harder for me just because my memory is clearer. Powerful memory doesn’t make my emotions any more acture or vivid. I can recall the day my grandfather died and the sadness I felt when we went to the hosptibal the day before. I also remember that the musical paly Hamopened on the Broadway on the same day- they both just pop into my mind in the same way.
问答题Directions:
In some countries the average worker is obliged to retire at the age of 60 to 65. Some people agree with this practice, while others do not. What do you think?
You should write about 150 words in your essay.
单选题The idea is as audacious as it altruistic: provide a personal laptop computer to every schoolchild—particularly in the poorest parts of the world. The first step to making that happen is whittling the price down to $100. And that is the goal of a group of American techno-gurus led by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the fabled MIT Media Lab. When he unveiled the idea at the World Economic Forum in January it seemed wildly ambitious. But surprisingly, it is starting to become a reality. Mr. Negroponte plans to display the first prototype in November at a UN summit. Four countries—Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa—have said they will buy over l m units each. Production is due to start in late 2006.
How is the group, called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), able to create a laptop so inexpensively? It is mainly a matter of cleverly combining existing technologies in new ways. The laptop will have a basic processor made by AMD, flash memory instead of a hard disk, will be powered by batteries or a hand-crank, and will run open-source software. The $100 laptop also puts all the components behind the screen, not under the keyboard, so there is no need for an expensive hinge. So far, OLPC has got the price down to around $130.
But good news for the world"s poor, may not be such great news for the world"s computer manufacturers. The new machine is not simply of interest in the developing world. On September 22nd, Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts, said the state should purchase one for every secondary-school student, when they become available.
Sales to schools are just one way in which the $100 laptop could change the computer industry more broadly. By depressing prices and fuelling the trend for "good-enough computing", where customers upgrade less often, it could eventually put pressure on the world"s biggest PC-makers.
问答题Directions:
Write an essay based on the following table. In which, you should
1) describe the table and
2) give your comments.
You should write at least 150 words.
Write your essay on the ANSWER SHEET.
Average distance in miles travelled per person per year, by mode of travel
Mode of travel
2,000
2,010
Car
790
1,455
Bus
354
624
Bicycle
51
45
Train
1,143
1,255
Air
192
366
Ship
13
20
Other
420
525
All modes
2,963
4,600
问答题Directions:
As part of a student social survey project, you are leading a group to visit an exhibition in a small town. Write a letter:
1) ask for information regarding such things as the contents of the exhibition,
2) the dates of its opening and closing, any discounts.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter, Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Directions:
You have just come back from Canada and found a music CD in your luggage that you forgot to return to Bob, your landlord there. Write him a letter to
1) make an apology, and
2) suggest a solution.
You should write about 100 words onthe ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题In the 19th century, there was a hydraulic model of how to be a good person. There are all these torrents of passion flowing through you. Your job, as captain of your soul, is to erect dams to keep these passions in check. Your job is to just say no to laziness, temptation, greed, drug use and the other sins.
Praying could really help. They could help you identify sin. Preachers could persuade you to exercise the willpower you need to guard against temptation. These days that model is out of fashion. You usually can"t change your behavior by simply resolving to do something. If that were true, New Year"s resolutions would actually work.
Your willpower is not like a dam that can block the torrent of self-indulgence. It"s more like a muscle, which tires easily. People can change their lives, but ordering change is not simple because many things, even within ourselves, are beyond our direct control.
问答题Telling stories is as basic to human beings as eating. More so, in fact, for while food makes us live, stories are what make our lives worth living. They are what make our condition human.
This was recognized from the very beginnings of western civilization. Hesiod tells us how the founding myths were invented to explain how the world came to be and how we came to be in it. Myths were stories people told themselves in order to explain themselves to themselves and to others. But it was Aristotle who first developed this insight into a philosophical position when he argued, in his Poetics, that the art of storytelling—defined as the dramatic imitating and plotting of human action—is what gives us a shareable world.
It is, in short, only when haphazard happenings are transformed into story, and thus made memorable over time, that we become full agents of our history.
问答题Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart,inwhichyoushould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题Directions:
Restrictions on the use of plastic bags have not been so successful in some regions. "White Pollution" is still going on.
Write a letter to the editor(s) of your local newspaper to
1) give your opinions briefly, and
2) make two or three suggestions.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Over the years, I have written extensively about animal intelligence experiments and the controversy surrounding them. Do animals really have thoughts, what we call consciousness? Wondering whether there might be better ways to explore animal intelligence than experiments designed to teach human signs, I realized what now seems obvious: if animals can think, they will probably do their best thinking when it serves their own purposes, not when scientists ask them to.
So I started talking to vets and zoo keepers. Most do not study animal intelligence, but they encounter it, and the lack of it, every day. The-stories they tell us reveal what I'm convinced is a new window on animal intelligence: the mental feats animals perform when dealing with captivity and the dominant species on the planet—humans.
Anyway, it is comforting to realize that other species besides our own can stand back and assess the world around them, even if their horizons are more limited.
问答题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
单选题Most American politicians say they support marriage, but few do much about it, except perhaps to sound off about the illusory threat to it from gays. The public are divided. Few want to go back to the attitudes or divorce laws of the 1950s. But many at both ends of the political spectrum lament the fragility of American families and would change, at least, the way the tax code penalises many couples who marry. And some politicians want the state to draw attention to benefits of marriage, as it does to the perils of smoking. George Bush is one.
Since last year, his administration has been handing out grants to promote healthy marriages. This is a less preachy enterprise than you might expect. Sidonie Squier, the bureaucrat in charge, does not argue that divorce is wrong: "If you"re being abused, you should get out." Nor does she think the government should take a view on whether people should have pre-marital sex.
Her budget for boosting marriage is tiny: $100m a year, or about what the Defence Department spends every two hours. Some of it funds research into what makes a relationship work well and whether outsiders can help. Most of the rest goes to groups that try to help couples get along better, some of which are religiously-inspired. The first 124 grants were disbursed only last September, so it is too early to say whether any of this will work. But certain approaches look hopeful.
One is "marriage education". The army already does this. About 35,000 soldiers this year will get a 12-hour course on how to communicate better with their partners, and how to resolve disputes without throwing plates. It costs about $300 per family. Given that it costs $50,000 to recruit and train a rifleman, and that marital problems are a big reason why soldiers quit, you don"t have to save many marriages for this to be cost-effective, says Peter Frederich, the chaplain in charge.
Several studies have shown that such courses do indeed help couples communicate better and quarrel less bitterly. As to whether they prevent divorce, a meta-analysis by Jason Carroll and William Doherty concluded that the jury was still out. The National Institutes of Health is paying for a five-year study of Mr Frederich"s soldiers to shed further light on the issue.
At the end of the day, says Ms Squier, the government"s influence over the culture of marriage will be marginal. Messages from movies, peers and parents matter far more. But she does not see why, for example, the government"s only contact with an unmarried father should be to demand that he pay child support. By not even mentioning marriage, the state is implying that no one expects him to stick around. Is that a helpful message?
问答题Directions:
Write a letter to your university library, making suggestions for improving its service.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Directions:
Write a letter to invite your friend Tina and Joseph to attend your first anniversary of wedding. The followings are specific information:
1) Time: 12 a. m., August 22;
2) Address: Shangri-La Hotel;
3) One of your friends teaching you Italian, you want to introduce him to them.
问答题1) state your present problems, and
2) ask for an interview with him.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Suppose you are the president of the Students' Union. Write a
notice about recruiting new members for the Union. The notice
should 1) specify the qualifications,
and 2) tell the arrangement of
interview. You should write about 100 words on the
ANSWER SHEET. {{B}}Do not{{/B}} use your own name.
问答题Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题On August 18th U.S. News＆ World Report released its 2009 rankings of America's top colleges. The survey began in 1983 as an informal poll, when the magazine asked 662 college presidents to identify the country's best places of learning. It has since evolved into an annual trial for reputable universities. A strong showing in the rankings spurs student interest and alumni (校友) giving; a slip has grave consequences for public relations.
University administrators deeply dislike the survey. Many reject the idea that schools can be stacked up against one another in any meaningful way. But whether the rankings are fair is beside the point, because they are widely influential. In the 1983 survey barely half of the presidents approached bothered to respond. Today, only a handful dare ignore it. Most, in fact, do more than simply fill out the survey. Competition between colleges for top students is increasing, partly because of the very popularity of rankings.
问答题Public health experts are debating whether e-cigarettes (电子香烟) can help stop tobacco smoking. Research around this topic is sparse, but one new, relatively small study raises questions about whether e-cigarettes can rid tobacco smoker of their deadly habit. The study looked at 949 tobacco smokers—88 of whom also used e-cigarettes—and found that smoking e-cigarettes did not help them quit or reduce their use of cigarettes over the course of a year.
E-cigarettes, which do not contain tobacco and give off no tar (焦油) or carbon monoxide (一氧化碳), are believed to be safer than regular tobacco cigarettes, and some argue that pushing people toward less dangerous nicotine-intake systems is better for them. But cutting down or quitting smoking altogether is the ultimate goal, and the new study suggests that's not happening.
问答题1)describethetable,and2)giveyourcommentsYoushouldwriteabout150words.WriteyouressayontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题Directions:
Two months ago you got a job as an editor for the magazine
Designs & Fashions.
But now you find that the work is not what you expected. You decide to quit. Write a letter to your boss, Mr. Smith, telling him your decision, stating your reason (s), and making an apology.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Directions:
Suppose you have already had a date with your friend but suddenly have another thing to do and you have to tell your friend that you can"t go. Express your reason clearly.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Suppose you are going to be a postgraduate student in Wuhan
University. Write a letter to a professor there to 1)
tell him about your plan for future academic studies, and
2) ask for advice about how to get prepared for the study
there. You should write about 100 words on the
ANSWER SHEET. Do not use your own
name. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
问答题Directions:
The following table gives statistics showing the aspects of quality of life in five countries. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information in the table below. You should write at least 150 words.
Countries
GNP per head
(1982:
U.S. dollars)
Daily calorie
supply per
head
Life expectancy
at birth
(years)
Infant mortality
rates (per 1000
live births)
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Egypt
Indonesia
USA
140
570
690
580
13160
1877
2086
2950
2296
3652
40
50
56
49
74
132
124
97
87
12
Selected statistics showing aspects of the quality of life in five countries.
问答题Like examinations, the annual ranking of school is a necessary evil. It is a boon to schools which do well and a bane to those which fail to measure up. Ranking is good in that it will lead to competition which will raise the overall teaching standards of schools. However, competition can be both virtuous and vicious and it is quite impossible to just retain the former and say no to the latter.
The negative effects of the inevitable vicious competition may be a lot more damaging than we think. For a school to prove that it has made progress and emerge winner in the yearly battle, the principal, teachers and pupils will all have to focus their time and energy on achieving excellent academic results.
It is unfortunate that to a large extent, academic scores have become the primary concern in the learning process.
问答题In most public schools today, teachers are simply rated "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory," and evaluations consist of having the principal observe a class for a few minutes a couple of times each year.
Many districts and states are trying to move toward better personnel systems for evaluation and improvement. Unfortunately, some education advocates in New York, Los Angeles and other cities are claiming that a good personnel system can be based on ranking teachers according to their "value-added rating"—a measurement of their impact on students" test scores—and publicizing the names and rankings online and in the media.
I am a strong supporter of measuring teachers" effectiveness, and my foundation works with many schools to help make sure that such evaluations improve the overall quality of teaching. But publicly ranking teachers by name will not help them get better at their jobs or improve student learning. On the contrary, it will make it a lot harder to implement teacher evaluation systems that work.
问答题The A-list was created by James Ulmer, an entertainment journalist. Ulmer created the "Ulmer Scale" to determine bankable stars, actors who guarantee the success of a movie simply by appearing in it. In 2002, for example, the Ulmer Scale assessed actor Tom Cruise at 100 points and the budget for his movie Minority Report was $102 million. According to the scale, the movie should have made 100% (Cruise=100 points) or $102 million simply because Tom Cruise was in the movie. In actual fact, the movie made over $300m worldwide. Other bankable stars that year were Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. In 2005, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks still topped the list while Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman were the only women in the Top Ten.
Celebrity and fame are directly related to the mass media that report on particular individuals. Thus, some celebrities are famous worldwide (for example, Brad Pitt and Madonna) while others are only famous within their country or region. Some examples of such famous people in their own countries include Japanese musician Ayumi Hamasaki, Korean actress Hyun Kyung Oh, Thai entertainer Bird Thongchai Mcintyre, and Chinese astronauts Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng. Celebrities can include not only movie stars and television actors, but also politicians, television reporters and game show hosts, models, astronauts, athletes, and musicians.
问答题Your friend from America intends to further his study in China.
Write a letter to 1) express your warm welcome,
and 2) offer some suggestions on his future life in
China. You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER
SHEET. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming"
instead.
问答题Directions:
Suppose you have a friend who is about to enter university, and he wants you to advise him on which subject to specialize in—history, in which he is very interested, or computer science, which offers better job prospects.
1) Give your suggestions, and explain the reasons.
2) Other recommendations.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题1) recommend a book you like
2) and give reasons for your recommendation
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Reality is usually one step ahead of the language we possess to describe it. People began taking pictures of themselves long before the
Oxford English Dictionary
selected "selfie" as its 2013 Word of the Year. Friends e-mailed each other pictures of cats longing for cheezburgers without knowing they were sharing a "meme". This language lag time makes it difficult to understand the present as it unfurls. Or, as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein might say, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
Our new book, The Age of Earthquakes:
A Guide to the Extreme Present,
tries to fill that gap. Part poetic manifesto, part postmodern dictionary, the text explores how technology is reinventing such fundamental things as time, individuality and class. Which of today"s universal experiences, we asked, would seem utterly alien to a version of us from two decades ago?
Co-authors Douglas Coupland, Hans Ulrich Obrist and I turned our answers into new words that describe the effects of digital technology and the Internet on everything from our brains to the planet. You"ve all felt these things happening to you. But you didn"t have names for them yet. Well, now you do.
问答题Directions:
Suppose you want to invite Mr. Williams to give a lecture on "American Literature" in your college. Suppose you are the assistant of the English Department, write a letter including:
1) the purpose of the invitation,
2) the time of the lecture.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Knowing that you are paid less than your peers has two effects on happiness. The well-known one is negative: a thinner pay packet harms self-esteem. The lesser-known one is called the "tunnel effect": high incomes for peers are seen as improving your own chances of similar riches, especially if growth, inequality and mobility are high.
A paper authored by Tom Dorson of the University of St Andrews separates the two effects using data from household surveys in Germany. Previous work showed that the income of others can have a small, or even positive, overall effect on people"s satisfaction in individual firms. But Mr. Dorson"s team hypothesized that older workers, who largely know their lifetime incomes already, will enjoy a much smaller tunnel effect.
The data confirm this hypothesis. The negative effect on reported levels of happiness of being paid less than your peers is not visible for people aged under 45. It is only those people over 45, when careers have "reached a stable position", whose happiness is harmed by the success of others.
问答题Suppose you are going to study abroad but hesitating about the
major. Write your foreign friend Bob in America an email to
1) tell him about your intention to study abroad, and
2) ask for advice about the choice of major.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming"
instead. Do not write your
address.
问答题The biggest price of the U.S. economy, by far, is the consumer sector. It represents 70% of GDP (国内生产总值) in most years. But consumers suffered historic setbacks in 2008 and 2009. According to a report, 13% of households experienced "substantial financial stress". This compares with only 1% during the previous two recessions. And it is why consumer spending fell so sharply in 2009, as frightened households cut back.
It has taken years for total household finances to recover fully, but now they have. Total household net worth is now well above its 2007 peak, driven by the recovery in stock prices and home values. Household debt-to-income ratios are the lowest in more than 30 years. And the first half of 2014 has seen employment begin to take off and the unemployment rate has fallen. The overall outlook for consumer spending, the engine of the economy, is healthy again.
问答题Will newspapers become a thing of the past in this Internet age? It is currently estimated that more than 1 billion people use the Internet worldwide. The number-one online activity is e-mail, followed by reading news on the Internet. The Internet is an increasingly effective and efficient way to reach the largest possible audience worldwide. Harris Interactive, a U.S.-based company, reported that the majority of people went online because they could obtain information at times suitable to them; or others did so because more detailed news could be found online; or more up-to-date information was available online; or because they could access news while at work.
Though most media reporters and networks try to report objectively, bias exists. Bias means to favor. Bias can occur in the media"s choice of stories and coverage of a story. Through the choice of words and selection of interviews, interviewers and interviewees, the media might report favorably or unfavorably on a news issue. As viewers of news stories, audiences need to objectively judge the news coverage that they hear and read, and seek out more information from other sources, if necessary.
问答题1) give your opinions briefly;
2) make two or three suggestions.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题Directions:
You have lust come back from the U.S. as a member of a Sino-American cultural exchange program. Write a letter to your American colleague to
1) express your thanks for his/her warm reception;
2) welcome him/her to visit China in due course.
You should write about 100 words on
ANSWER SHEET 2.
Do not
sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Zhang Wei" instead.
Do not
write your address.
问答题Directions:
Suppose your university is going to host a summer camp for high school students. Write a notice to
1)briefly introduce the camp activities, and
2) call for volunteers.
You should write about 100 words on the
ANSWER SHEET
.
Do not
use your name or the name of your university.
Do not
write your address.
问答题One person out of three who graduated from university in the past six years is in a job requiring only the skills of a school-leaver, up from one in four a decade ago. A 21-year-old university graduate is as likely to be unemployed in the year he leaves full-time education as a 16-year-old school-leaver. The official figures depress those young people hoping that the better job higher education is meant to assure them will pay back the sums they have loaned for college.
This is not all a consequence of the recession. The proportion of university graduates in lower-skilled jobs was rising even before economic growth reversed in 2008; the downturn just steepened the slope. The laws of supply and demand are one reason.
But if the outlook for graduates is dim, it is far worse for their less-educated counterparts. Though about a quarter of both university graduates and school-leavers are unemployed for a while when they leave full-time study, in two years less than 9% of graduates are still looking for work, compared with almost 27% of school-leavers,
问答题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteatleast150words.WriteyouressayontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题1) state your qualification(s) for the position
2) and ask for an interview.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
问答题"Sustainability" has become a popular word these days, but to Ted Ning, the concept will always have personal meaning. Having endured a painful period of unsustainability in his own life made it clear to him that sustainability-oriented values must be expressed through everyday action and choice.
Ning recalls spending a confusing year in the late 1990s selling insurance. He"d been through the dot-corn boom and burst and, desperate for a job, signed on with a Boulder agency.
It didn"t go well. "It was a really bad move because that"s not my passion," says Ning, whose dilemma about the job translated, predictably, into a lack of sales. "I was miserable. I had so much anxiety that I would wake up in the middle of the night and stare at the ceiling. I had no money and needed the job. Everyone said, "Just wait, you"ll turn the corner, give it some time.""
问答题Directions:
Suppose you"re going to graduate and start to think about your future career. Write your best friend an e-mail to
1) tell him what your ideal job is, and
2) ask him for advice about it.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.
问答题Suppose you got a wrong product from a online shopping center.
Write a letter to file a complaint. You should 1) tell
the manager about the fact, and 2) ask for
compensation. You should write about 100 words on the
ANSWER SHEET. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming"
instead.
问答题Write a letter to the public to call for donations for the refugees
in Yunnan Province. You should 1) explain the reasons
for the donations, and 2) call for
donations You should write about 100 words on the
ANSWER SHEET. Do not use your own name. Use "Zhang
Wei" instead.
问答题Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart,inwhichyoushould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
单选题Whether mobile phones can cause cancer remains an open question. But they are also accused by some of causing pain. A growing number of people around the world claim to be "electrosensitive", in other words physically responsive to the electromagnetic fields that surround phones and the other electronic devices that clutter the modern world. Indeed, at least one country, Sweden, has recognized such sensitivity as a disability, and will pay for the dwellings of sufferers to be screened from the world"s electronic smog.
The problem is that, time and again, studies of those claiming to be electrosensitive show their ability to determine whether they are being exposed to a real electric field or a sham one is no better than chance. So, unless they are lying about their symptoms, the cause of those symptoms needs to be sought elsewhere.
Michael Landgrebe and Ulrich Frick, of the University of Regensburg, in Germany, think that the "elsewhere" in question is in the brain and, in a paper presented recently to the Royal Society in London, they describe an experiment which, they think, proves their point.
Dr. Landgrebe and Dr. Frick used a body scanner called a functional magnetic-resonance imager to see how people"s brains react to two different kinds of stimulus. Thirty participants, half of whom described themselves as electrosensitive, were put in the imager and told that they would undergo a series of trials in which they would be exposed either to an active mobile phone or to a heating device called a thermode, whose temperature would be varied between the trials. The thermode was real. The mobile phone, however, was a dummy.
The type of stimulus, be it the authentic heat source or the sham electromagnetic radiation, was announced before each exposure and the volunteers were asked to rate its unpleasantness on a five-point scale. In the case of heat, the two groups" descriptions of their experiences were comparable. So, too, was their brain activity. However, when it came to the sham-phone exposure, only the electrosensitive described any sensations—which ranged from prickling to pain. Moreover, they showed neural activity to match.
This suggests that electrosensitivity, rather than being a response to electromagnetic stimulus, is similar to well-known psychosomatic disorders such as some sorts of tinnitus and chronic pain. A psychosomatic disorder is one in which the symptoms are real, but are induced by cognitive functions such as attitudes, beliefs and expectations rather than by direct external stimuli.
The paradoxical point of Dr. Landgrebe"s and Dr. Frick"s experiment is that mobile phones do indeed inflict real suffering on some unfortunate individuals. It is just that the electromagnetic radiation they emit has nothing whatsoever to do with it.
单选题 "Nanny", "tyrant"—these were among the charges hurled at
Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, when he proposed a ban on big fizzy-drink
bottles last May. The billionaire shrugged and pushed forward. However even Mr.
Bloomberg must heed a court order. The American Beverage Association, which
represents Coca-Cola and other soda companies, has sued. Mr. Bloomberg's ban is
due to start on March 12th, but a judge may intervene. Three
years after Michelle Obama launched her Let's Move! campaign, the fight against
childhood obesity faces a tactical problem. Recent years have been dipping
obesity rates in a few places, including New York, Mississippi and Philadelphia.
But 17% of American children are still obese. The question is how to speed up
progress. Further bans look increasingly unlikely. Voluntary
programs remain politically much easier. Mrs. Obama has exhorted firms to take
action. Many companies have. On March 6th the Partnership for a Healthier
America, a business group, published a report praising its members for putting
more grocers in poor areas and healthier foods at restaurants. Sixteen food and
beverage companies have promised to slash a combined 1.5 trillion calories from
their products by 2015. Their first progress report is due in June. The
long-term effect of these efforts may be slim. For example, even if the food and
drink firms keep their promise, they would cut just 14 calories from the average
American's daily diet. Regulations might bring bigger change,
but recent years suggest that such rules will come slowly, if at all. Congress
did pass a law requiring healthier school lunches, though its effects are
limited. Other attempts at national regulation have stalled. Four federal
agencies studied voluntary guidelines to limit junk-food advertisements to
children. Under pressure from Congress, the agencies dropped the effort.
Obamacare requires that all restaurants and cinemas post the number of calories
in their foods. The Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule for menus in
2011, but has yet to finalise the regulation. Cities and states
are more likely to act than Congress (hardly a high bar), but they face their
own challenges. Last year the beverage lobby spent more than $2.8m to defeat a
soda tax in the small city of Richmond, California. Even Mr. Bloomberg, the
anti-obesity crusade's most fervent warrior, can only do so much.
单选题Higher demand from developing countries and oil producers is offsetting the lower demand of wealthy countries. Consumption in these countries will rise 3 percent in 2008, or 1.2 million barrels a day, projects the International Energy Agency. Many of these countries subsidize fuel so that final customers are insulated from price increases. Gasoline is about 25 cents a gallon in Venezuela and about 60 cents in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran.
There"s been a huge transfer of power to oil producers. Even at $100 a barrel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates will earn almost $8 trillion in oil revenues between now and 2020, estimates the McKinsey Global Institute. More troubling are the political implications. "This has really strengthened the Iranians, Russians and Venezuelans to be more provocative in the world," says Larry Goldstein of the Energy Policy Research Foundation. Although governments control crude supplies, private companies have dominated distribution. Anyone can buy oil at a price. Now oil could become a political commodity, used by governments to cement their alliances, offered to friends at a discount; withheld from rivals.
How can we retrieve some of our lost power? The first thing is to get out of denial. Stop blaming oil companies, "speculators" and other scapegoats for a situation not of their making. Next, we need to expand oil and natural-gas drilling in the United States, including Alaska. No, we can"t "drill our way" out of this problem. But we can augment oil supplies and lessen price strains on global markets. It might take 10 years or more, because new projects are huge undertakings. But delay will only aggravate our future problems, just as past errors aggravate present problems.
Finally, we need to let high prices work. Aside from encouraging fuel-efficient vehicles and disciplining driving habits, they may also stimulate development of new biofuels from wood chips, food waste and switch grass. Production costs of these fuels may be in the range of $1 a gallon. If true, that"s well below today"s wholesale gasoline prices. To assure new producers that they wouldn"t be wiped out if oil prices plunged, we should set a floor price for oil of $50 to $80 a barrel, about 40 percent to 60 percent of today"s levels. It"s a worthy idea and can be done with a standby tariff. It would activate only if prices hit the threshold. We know that oil prices are unpredictable, and should a price collapse occur, Americans wouldn"t be deluded into thinking we"ve returned permanently to cheap energy. We"ve made that mistake before.
问答题Directions:
You want to contribute to Project Hope by offering financial aid to a child in a
remote area. Write a letter to the department concerned, asking them to help find a candidate. You should specify what kind of child you want to help and how you will carry out your plan.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address.
完形填空Thinner isn’t always better. A number of studies have __1___ that normal-weight people are in fact at higher risk of some diseases compared to those who are overweight. And there are health conditions for which being overweight is actually ___2___. For example, heavier women are less likely to develop calcium deficiency than thin women. ___3___ among the elderly, being somewhat overweight is often an ___4___ of good health.
Of even greater ___5___ is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to define. It is often defined ___6___ body mass index, or BMI. BMI ___7__ body mass divided by the square of height. An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered to be normal weight. Between 25 and 30 is overweight. And over 30 is considered obese. Obesity, ___8___,can be divided into moderately obese, severely obese, and very severely obese.
While such numerical standards seem 9 , they are not. Obesity is probably less a matter of weight than body fat. Some people with a high BMI are in fact extremely fit, 10 others with a low BMI may be in poor 11 .For example, many collegiate and professional football players 12 as obese, though their percentage body fat is low. Conversely, someone with a small frame may have high body fat but a 13 BMI.
Today we have a(an) _14 _ to label obesity as a disgrace.The overweight are sometimes_15_in the media with their faces covered. Stereotypes _16_ with obesity include laziness, lack of will power,and lower prospects for success.Teachers,employers,and health professionals have been shown to harbor biases against the obese. _17_very young children tend to look down on the overweight, and teasing about body build has long been a problem in schools.
写作题Suppose you won a translation contest and your friend, Jack, wrote an email to congratulate you and ask for advice on translation. Write him a reply to
1) thank him, and
2) give you advice
You should write about 100 on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use Li Ming instead.
Do not write the address. (10 points)
英译汉The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as possible within its doors. The reason for this is simple: The longer you stay in the store, the more stuff you'll see, and the more stuff you see, the more you'll buy. And supermarkets contain a lot of stuff. The average supermarket, according to the Food Marketing Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens of thousands more. The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a state of information overload. According to brain-scan experiments, the demands of so much decision-making quickly become too much for us. After about 40 minutes of shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead began shopping emotionally-which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff in our cart that we never intended buying.
写作题writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechartand2)giveyourcommentsYoushouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
写作题Directions: Writeyouressaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyouressay,youshould1.interpretthechart,and2.giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)
写作题Directions: Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,yourshould 1)interpretthechart,and 2)giveyourcomment. Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
单选题In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products. But because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound up buried in landfill. The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.
Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc.
As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life—and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.
Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.
问答题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题Directions:Inthissection,youareaskedtowriteanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechartand2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteatleast150words.WriteyouressayonANSWERSHEET2.
问答题Think about driving a route that"s very familiar. It could be your commute to work, a trip into town or the way home. Whichever it is, you know every twist and turn like the back of your hand. On these sorts of trips it"s easy to lose concentration on the driving and pay little attention to the passing scenery. The consequence is that you perceive that the trip has taken less time than it actually has.
This is the well-travelled road effect. People tend to underestimate the time it takes to travel a familiar route.
The effect is caused by the way we allocate our attention. When we travel down a well-known route, because we don"t have to concentrate much, time seems to flow more quickly. And afterward, when we come to think back on it, we can"t remember the journey well because we didn"t pay much attention to it. So we assume it was shorter.
问答题Signs of decline are sure to be found in a place as complex as America: debt, crime, the homeless, drugs, dropouts. But the main characteristic of America, the first and most enduring impression, is dynamism, energy, aggressiveness, forward movement.
It is so hard to think of this nation in decline when you know that there are vast regions of the planet which are absolutely paralyzed, incapable of any improvement at all. It is difficult for me to agree with Paul Kennedy's thesis that America must inevitably follow historical precedent. That's the way history used to be—all powerful nations declined and gave way to other empires. But I have a sense that what is going on here concerns much more than the fate of a nation. It may be that the Euro-centered American nation is declining as it gives way to a new Pacific civilization that will include, but not limited to, America. (153 words)
问答题1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteatleast150words.WriteyouressayontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题1)describethechart,and2)stateyourownopinion.Youshouldwriteabout150words.WriteyouressayontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as possible within its doors. The reason for this is simple: The longer you stay in the store, the more stuff you"ll see, and the more stuff you see, the more you"ll buy. And supermarkets contain a lot of stuff. The average supermarket, according to the Food Marketing Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens of thousands more. The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a state of information overload. According to brain-scan experiments, the demands of so much decision-making quickly become too much for us. After about 40 minutes of shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead begin shopping emotionally—which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff in our cart that we never intended buying.
问答题Intelligence quotients (IQs) testing is controversial and regarded by some as a crude indicator of ability or potential. When comparing nations, measured average IQ tends to be affected by class, nutrition, and cultural factors including education. There is also disagreement over the influences of nature and nurture.
IQs have risen in developed nations for almost a century. But in Britain, research has found a reversal of this trend. The average had declined by two points on average, but by as much as six points among teenagers in the top half of the IQ scale, a fall that wiped out the previous two decades of gains in that group.
No cause for this fall in IQs has been established: the internet, the dumbing down of education, and an obsession with exam results have been suggested. Flynn has argued that youth culture has made a contribution.
问答题Just a few years ago, the world economy was in a mess. Today, growth prospects are brighter, but progress is slow, uneven and uncertain. Is the U.S. recovery sustainable? Will the euro zone overcome its economic difficulty and return to growth? Will faster-growing emerging markets overheat, or simply grow old before they grow rich? Which consumers will drive the global economy?
These were just some of the issues raised by the 730 investors. However, a majority of these investors are optimistic about global economic expansion this year, banking on growth led by China and U.S. But most fear that structural problems, such as unsustainable debt, inadequate infrastructure and growing income gaps, may harm long-term growth prospects. A surprising 65% of investors agree that growing income diversities threaten the capitalist system.
But smart investors are staying informed and flexible, while searching for value opportunities in troubled developed economies such as Greece, Italy and Spain. They are also looking beyond China and rising markets in South-East Asia.
问答题A role model is a person who is a good example to others, in terms of doing noble or charitable acts or representing good values or ways of thinking and acting. Related to role models are heroes and icons. A hero is a person who has amazing abilities or traits, and has performed extraordinary acts. An icon is someone who is an image or symbol of importance.
TIME magazine published a list of heroes and icons from the last 100 years (1900 to 2000). The list of twenty people who "articulate the longings of the last 100 years, exemplifying courage, selflessness, exuberance, superhuman ability and amazing grace" includes: Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, Pele, Che Guevara, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgan, Helen Keller, Bruce Lee, Charles Lindbergh and Andrei Sakharov. Do you know who all of these people are? Who would you add to your personal list of heroes and icons?
Some famous role models have been recipients of a Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize is a highly-respected international award given to people (and organizations) who have conducted exceptional research, created ground-breaking inventions or made outstanding contributions to society. There are five categories: Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature and Nobel Prize in Peace.
问答题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart,inwhichyoushould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.
问答题Directions:
Suppose you got some reference books and a letter from Mr. Li Ming a few days ago, but you did not reply in time. Write a letter to him to make a reply. Your letter should include:
1) The purpose;
2) Your reasons;
3) Your sincere hope.
You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.
问答题Directions:
Suppose you won a translation contest and your friend, Jack, wrote an e-mail to congratulate you and ask for advice on translation. Write him a reply to
1) thank him, and
2) give your advice.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write the address.
问答题近些年来，上网的人越来越多，人们可以便捷地从电脑或手机上读到新闻、摄取信息甚至下载阅读电子图书，这令报摊、书店等传统读物经销商的生意日趋惨淡，如著名图书连锁店“光合作用”部分门店已关闭。该现象与趋势已引起公众的关注与热议。
填空题Directions: Read the following text and answer questions by
finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked
details given in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right
column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.A man wakes up
in a New York apartment, brews coffee and goes out into the world, and
everything that can appear on a smartphone or iPad appears before his eyes
instead: weather reports , calendar reminders, messages from friends, his
girlfriend's smiling face. This is the promise of Google's Project Glass. Even
if the project itself never comes to fruition, though, the preview video
deserves a life of its own, as a window into what our era promises and what it
threatens to take away. On the one hand, the video is a
testament to modem technology's extraordinary feats—not only instant
communication across continents, but also an almost god-like access to
information about the world around us. But the video also captures the sense of
isolation that coexists with our technological mastery. The man in the Google
Glasses lives alone, in a drab, impersonal apartment. He is, in
other words, a characteristic 21st-century American, more electronically
networked but more personally isolated than ever before. As the N. Y.U.
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg notes in Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and
Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, there are now more Americans living by
themselves than there are Americans in intact nuclearfamily households. And
friendship, too, seems to be attenuating (减弱): a 2006 Duke University study
found that Americans reported having, on average, three people with whom they
discussed important issues in 1985, but just two by the mid-2000s.
The question hanging over the future of American social life, then, is
whether all the possibilities of virtual community can make up for the weakening
of flesh-and-blood ties and the decline of traditional communal
institutions. The optimists say yes. ff you believe writers
like Clay Shirky, author of 2008's Here Comes Everybody, the buzzing hive mind
of the Internet is well on its way to generating a kind of "cognitive surplus",
which promises to make group interactions even more effective and enriching than
they were before the Web. The pessimists, on the other hand,
worry that online life offers only an illusion of community. In Alone Together,
Sherry Turkle argues that the lure of Internet relationships, constantly
available but inherently superficial, might make both genuine connection and
genuine solitude impossible. Seeing the world through the eyes
of the man in the Google Glasses, though, suggests a more political reason for
pessimism. In his classic 1953 work, The Quest for Community, the sociologist
Robert Nisbet argues that in eras of intense individualism and weak communal
ties, an atomized, rootless population is more likely to embrace authoritarian
ideologies, and more likely to seek the protection of an omnicompetent
state. Today, social media are hailed for empowering dissidents
and undercutting tyrannies around the world. Yet it's hard not to watch the
Google video and agree with Forbes's Kashmir Hill when she suggests that such a
technology could ultimately "accelerate the arrival of the persistent and
pervasive" citizen surveillance state, in which everything you see and do can be
recorded, reported. In this kind of world, the man in the Google Glasses might
feel like a king of infinite space. But he'd actually inhabit a comfortable,
full-service cage. A. Internet will eliminate the social
advance achieved in the past centuries. B. individual liberty
might lead some people to embrace despotism ideology. C.
Internet is likely to bring genuine correlation to an end. D.
vast change has taken place in terms of the current American family
structure. E. the Internet will facilitate and enrich communal
interactions. F. the Internet technology will make personal
behaviour exposed to others. G. excessive addiction to the
Internet will bring about individualism.
It is no secret among athletes that in order to improve performance you"ve got to work hard. However, hard training breaks you down and makes you weaker. It is rest that makes you stronger. Improvement only occurs during the rest period following hard training. This adaptation is accomplished by improving efficiency of the heart and certain systems within the muscle cells. During recovery periods these systems build to greater levels to compensate for the stress that you have applied. The result is that you are now at a higher level of performance.
If sufficient rest is not included in a training program, imbalance between excess training and inadequate rest will occur, and performance will decline. The "overtraining syndrome" is the name given to the collection of emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms due to overtraining that has persisted for weeks to months. It is marked by cumulative exhaustion that persists even after recovery periods.
The most common symptom is fatigue. This may limit workouts and may be present at rest. The athlete may also become moody, easily irritated, have altered sleep patterns, become depressed, or lose the competitive desire and enthusiasm for the sport. Some will report decreased appetite and weight loss. Physical symptoms include persistent muscular soreness, increased frequency of viral illnesses, and increased incidence of injuries.
The treatment for the overtraining syndrome is rest. The longer the overtraining has occurred, the more rest required. Therefore, early detection is very important. If the overtraining has only occurred for a short period of time (e.g. 3-4 weeks) then interrupting training for 3-5 days is usually sufficient rest. It is important that the factors that lead to overtraining be identified and corrected. Otherwise, the overtraining syndrome is likely to recur. The overtraining syndrome should be considered in any athlete who manifests symptoms of prolonged fatigue and whose performance has leveled off or decreased. It is important to exclude any underlying illness that may be responsible for the fatigue.
Frustrated with delays in Sacramento, Bay Area officials said Thursday they planned to take matters into their own hands to regulate the region"s growing pile of electronic trash.
A San Jose councilwoman and a San Francisco supervisor said they would propose local initiatives aimed at controlling electronic waste if the California law making body fails to act on two bills stalled in the Assembly. They are among a growing number of California cities and counties that have expressed the same intention.
Environmentalists and local governments are increasingly concerned about the toxic hazard posed by old electronic devices and the cost of safely recycling those products. An estimated 6 million televisions and computers are stocked in California homes, and an additional 6,000 to 7,000 computers become outdated every day. The machines contain high levels of lead and other hazardous substances, and are already banned from California landfills.
Legislation by Senator Byron Sher would require consumers to pay a recycling fee of up to $30 on every new machine containing a cathode ray tube. Used in almost all video monitors and televisions, those devices contain four to eight pounds of lead each. The fees would go toward setting up recycling programs, providing grants to non-profit agencies that reuse the tubes and rewarding manufacturers that encourage recycling.
A separate bill by Los Angeles-area Senator Gloria Romero would require high-tech manufacturers to develop programs to recycle so-called e-waste.
If passed, the measures would put California at the forefront of national efforts to manage the refuse of the electronic age.
But high-tech groups, including the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group and the American Electronics Association, oppose the measures, arguing that fees of up to $30 wilt drive consumers to online, out-of-state retailers.
"What really needs to occur is consumer education. Most consumers are unaware they"re not supposed to throw computers in the trash," said Roxanne Gould, vice president of government relations for the electronics association.
Computer recycling should be a local effort and part of residential waste collection programs, she added.
Recycling electronic waste is a dangerous and specialized matter, and environmentalists maintain the state must support recycling efforts and ensure that the job isn"t contracted to unscrupulous junk dealers who send the toxic parts overseas.
"The graveyard of the high-tech revolution is ending up in rural China," said Ted Smith, director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. His group is pushing for an amendment to Sher"s bill that would prevent the export of e-waste.
填空题Directions: Read the following text and
answer the questions by choosing the most suitable subheading from the list A-G
for each numbered paragraph (41-45). There are two extra subheadings. Mark your
answers on the ANSWER SHEET.A．U.S. Is in
Face of Obesity B．Eat Less Fat and Cholesterol
C．Dietary Goals for the U.S. Issued D．The
Americans' Eating Habits Change E．America Becomes Sicker
than Before F．A Nutritional Experiment Is
Performed G．Cardiovascular Disease—America's No. 1
Killer In 1977, the year before I was born, a Senate committee
led by George McGovern published its landmark "Dietary Goals for the United
States", urging Americans to eat less high-fat red meat, eggs and dairy and
replace them with more calories from fruits, vegetables and especially
carbohydrates. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}}
{{/U}} By 1980 that wisdom was codified. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) issued its first dietary guidelines, and one of the primary
directives was to avoid cholesterol and fat of all sorts. The National
Institutes of Health recommended that all Americans over the age of 2 cut fat
consumption, and that same year the government announced the results of a $150
million study, which had a clear message: Eat less fat and cholesterol to reduce
your risk of a heart attack. {{U}} {{U}} 2
{{/U}} {{/U}} The food industry—and American eating
habits—jumped in step. Grocery shelves filled with "light" yogurts, low-fat
microwave dinners, cheese-flavored crackers, cookies. Families like mine
followed the advice: beef disappeared from the dinner plate, eggs were replaced
at breakfast with cereal or yolk-free beaters, and whole milk almost wholly
vanished. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of those foods dropped while
calories from supposedly healthy carbohydrates increased—no surprise, given that
breads, cereals and pasta were at the base of the USDA food pyramid.
{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}} The nation
was embarking on a "vast nutritional experiment", as the skeptical president of
the National Academy of Sciences, Philip Handler, put it in 1980. But with
nearly a million Americans a year dropping dead from heart disease by the
mid-'80s, it had to try something. {{U}} {{U}} 4
{{/U}} {{/U}} Nearly four decades later, the results are in:
the experiment was a failure. Americans cut the fat, but by almost every
measure, they are sicker than ever. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in the
U.S. increased 166% from 1980 to 2012. Nearly 1 in 10 American adults has the
disease, costing the country's health care system $245 billion a year, and an
estimated 86 million people are prediabetic. Deaths from heart disease have
fallen—a fact that many experts attribute to better emergency care, less smoking
and widespread use of cholesterol—controlling drugs like statins—but
cardiovascular disease remains the country's No. 1 killer.
{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}} Even the increasing
rates of exercise haven't been able to keep Americans healthy. More than a third
of the country is now obese, making the U.S. one of the fattest countries in an
increasingly fat world. "Americans were told to cut back on fat to lose weight
and prevent heart disease," says Dr. David Ludwig, the director of the New
Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children's
Hospital.
填空题Earlier this year when a lawsuit accused Anheuser-Busch of selling
watered-down beer, it caused only a minor buzz. America's biggest breweries have
long produced flavourless beer. And anyway, those seeking a more robust brew
have plenty of options. Today's beer market increasingly resembles that of the
pre-Prohibition era, when smaller, regional breweries dotted the map. Such is
the demand for good-tasting beer that, on average, more than one new brewery
opened every day last year. Small and independent breweries
have thrived during the recession and its wave, taking market share away from
traditional brands like Budweiser and Miller Lite. According to Beer
Marketer's Insights, a trade publication, craft beer (精酿啤酒) has grown over
13% by volume in each of the past three years. America's two biggest brewers,
Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, still account for around three quarters of the
domestic market, to craft's 6.7%. But even they have noticed the change in
consumer tastes. Whereas sales of their big brands have dropped off, gains have
been made by offerings called "crafty beer", which look and taste like craft
brews. This has led to some debate over what constitutes a
craft beer and an intra-industry quarrel over taxes. The Brewers Association
promotes the interests of "small, independent and traditional" brewers that
produce up to 6m barrels of beer a year. The largest craft brewer under this
definition is the Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams, which produced
over 2m barrels last year. That number also happens to be the cut-off (界限) for
favourable treatment by the government, which gives small brewers a break on the
federal excise tax (消费税). As the craft-beer industry grows, the
Brewers Association thinks more of its members will join Boston Beer on the
wrong side of the tax code. So it is pushing Congress to pass a bill that would
raise the excise-tax bar to 6m barrels a year. In March hundreds of
small-brewery owners took their case to Congress. But the Beer Institute, which
represents big and small brewers alike, unsurprisingly favours a different bill
that would cut the excise tax for the whole industry. Opponents
of slashing the excise tax, which has not been adjusted since 1991, note that
inflation has already reduced its potency. Moreover, some see higher alcohol
taxes as a Way to increase revenues. But others are sympathetic to the Beer
Institute's claim that taxes have become the most expensive ingredient of beer.
Hence, perhaps, the bitter taste of some brews. A．small and
independent breweries B．produced over 2m barrels last
year C．produced up to 6m barrels of beer a year
D．claims that duties become the most costly part of beer
E．considers more of its members will leave Boston Beer F．small
and regional beer-makers scattered about the country G．pushes
Congress to pass an act that would raise the excise-tax
填空题The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. "Hooray! At last!" wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic.
One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert"s appointment in the Times, calls him "an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him." As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some
Times
readers as faint praise.
For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fisher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is to go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes.
Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. These recordings are cheap, available everywhere, and very often much higher in artistic quality than today"s live performances; moreover, they can be "consumed" at a time and place of the listener"s choosing. The widespread availability of such recordings has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical concert.
One possible response is for classical performers to program attractive new music that is not yet available on record. Gilbert"s own interest in new music has been widely noted: Alex Ross, a classical-music critic, has described him as a man who is capable of turning the Philharmonic into "a markedly different, more vibrant organization." But what will be the nature of that difference? Merely expanding the orchestra"s repertoire will not be enough. If Gilbert and the Philharmonic are to succeed, they must first change the relationship between America"s oldest orchestra and the new audience it hopes to attract.
A. doubtful.
1
Gilbert"s appointment has
B. are easily accessible to the general public.
2
Tommasini regards Gilbert as an artist who is
C. received acclaim.
3
The author believes that the devoted concertgoers
D. are often inferior to live concerts in quality.
4
Recordings
E. modest.
5
Regarding Gilbert"s role in revitalizing the Philharmonic, the author feels
F. ignore the expenses of live performances.
G. overestimate the value of live performances.
填空题A. What have they found?
B. Is it true that laughing can make us healthier?
C. So why do people laugh so much?
D. What makes you laugh?
E. How did you come to research it?
F. So what"s it for?
G. When should laughing be banned?
Why are you interested in laughter?
It"s a universal phenomenon, and one of the most common things we do. We laugh many times a day, for many different reasons, but rarely think about it, and seldom consciously control it. We know so little about the different kinds and functions of laughter, and my interest really starts there. Why do we do it? What can laughter teach us about our positive emotions and social behaviour? There"s so much we don"t know about how the brain contributes to emotion and I think we can get at understanding this by studying laughter.
41. ______
Only 10 or 20 per cent of laughing is a response tohumour. Most of the time it"s a message we send to other people—communicating joyful disposition, a willingness to bond and so on. It occupies a special place in social interaction and is a fascinating feature of our biology, with motor, emotional and cognitive components. Scientists study all kinds of emotions and behaviour, but few focus on this most basic ingredient. Laughter gives us a clue that we have powerful systems in our brain which respond to pleasure, happiness and joy. It"s also involved in events such as release of fear.
42. ______
My professional focus has always been on emotional behaviour. I spent many years investigating the neural basis of fear in rats, and came to laughter via that route. When I was working with rats, I noticed that when they were alone, in an exposed environment, they were scared and quite uncomfortable. Back in a cage with others, they seemed much happier. It looked as if they played with one another—real rough and tumble—and I wondered whether they were also laughing. The neurobiologist Jaak Panksepp had shown that juvenile rats make short vocalisations, pitched too high for humans to hear, during rough and tumble play. He thinks these are similar to laughter. This made me wonder about the roots of laughter.
43. ______
Everything humans do has a function, and laughing is no exception. Its function is surely communication. We need to build social structures in order to live well in our society and evolution has selected laughter as a useful device for promoting social communication. In other words, it must have a survival advantage for the species.
44. ______
The brain scans are usually done while people are responding to humorous material. You see brainwave activity spread from the sensory processing area of the occipital lobe, the bit at the back of the brain that processes visual signals, to the brain"s frontal lobe. It seems that the frontal lobe is involved in recognising things as funny. The left side of the frontal lobe analyses the words and structure of jokes while the right side does the intellectual analyses required to "get" jokes. Finally, activity spreads to the motor areas of the brain controlling the physical task of laughing. We also know about these complex pathways involved in laughter from neurological illness and injury. Sometimes after brain damage, tumours, stroke or brain disorders such as Parkinson"s disease, people get "stonefaced syndrome" and can"t laugh.
45. ______
I laugh a lot when I watch amateur videos of children, because they"re so natural. I"m sure they"re not forcing anything funny to happen. I don"t particularly laugh hard at jokes, but rather at situations. I also love old comedy movies such as Laurel and Hardy and an extremely ticklish. After starting to study laughter in depth, I began to laugh and smile more in social situations, those involving either closeness or hostility. Laughter really creates a bridge between people, disarms them, and facilitates amicable behaviour.
填空题Economics is all about consumption. A healthy economy is largely a result of a reasonable balance between consumption today and consumption deferred. To figure out what our buying behavior says about the U.S. economy"s future, my colleagues and I at NPR"s "Planet Money" went searching for as many shopping-based indicators as we could find, hoping some would unlock a hidden story about what Americans are feeling and where the country is headed.
The results were mixed, but we did uncover some ominous signs. Lipstick sales used to go up when the economy went down, perhaps because women were searching for a cheap pick-me-up or an edge in a job interview—and sales of lipsticks are way up right now. Women"s underwear sales are down, which historically suggests intense frugality and more rough times ahead. But there are also some optimistic indicators. Sales of men"s underwear, one of Alan Greenspan"s favorite metrics for predicting growth, are also up. Sales of cheap spirits, which soared during the worst of the recession (people need an affordable way to self-medicate), have now stabilized, meaning, at the very least, that people can now afford better liquor.
Of all the indicators we looked at, one of the most consistently accurate was Champagne sales. The amount of French Champagne that Americans consume has predicted—with nearly 90 percent accuracy—the average American income one year later. Apparently, when we pop a Champagne cork, we know that good times are ahead. Champagne sales hurtled upward twice in recent history—at the peak of the Internet bubble in 1999 and the housing bubble in 2007. These were both followed by slowdowns as fewer people found reason to celebrate.
There are so many indicators to choose from that you could glean just about anything regarding our economic future. In fact, the most telling indicator appears to be the sheer number of indicators themselves. Americans now have so many seductive things they can buy that there are ample consumer options no matter what we feel. Partly as a result, savings—known in economics as deferred consumption—have fallen steadily for more than 30 years. The decline of the savings rate is particularly troubling because it is consistent through busts and booms. During the fast growth of the late 1990s and mid-2000s, and the dark times that followed, people have been choosing to spend more and save less than ever before. Paradoxically, this happened just as pensions have been disappearing and life spans have been increasing. It suggests that Americans are so caught up in every short-term enthusiasm or agony that they haven"t thought enough about long-term fiscal health.
America will, most likely, need to find a more normal, sustainable level of consumption, and that"s exactly the problem. What does a reasonable balance between consumption now and consumption deferred actually look like? That"s what we need to figure out.
A. the American economy shows signs of recovery.
B. American consumption lacks sustainable momentum.
C. the American economy falls from its peak.
D. the American economy is stuck in recession.
E. the American economy is booming in its hey day.
F. Americans consume more than can afford.
G. the American economy outlook is mixed and uncertain.
填空题The most thoroughly studied intellectuals in the history of the New World are the ministers and political leaders of seventeenth-century New England. According to the standard history of American philosophy, nowhere else in colonial America was "so much importance attached to intellectual pursuits." According to many books and articles, New England"s leaders established the basic themes and preoccupations of an unfolding, dominant Puritan tradition in American intellectual life.
To take this approach to the New Englanders normally means to start with the Puritans" theological innovations and their distinctive ideas about the church-important subjects that we may not neglect. But in keeping with our examination of southern intellectual life, we may consider the original Puritans as carriers of European culture, adjusting to New World circumstances. The New England colonies were the scenes of important episodes in the pursuit of widely understood ideals of civility and virtuosity.
The early settlers of Massachusetts Bay included men of impressive education and influence in England. Besides the ninety or so learned ministers who came to Massachusetts churches in the decade after 1629, there were political leaders like John Winthrop, an educated gentleman, lawyer, and official of the Crown before he journeyed to Boston. These men wrote and published extensively, reaching both New World and Old World audiences, and giving New England an atmosphere of intellectual earnestness.
We should not forget, however, that most New Englanders were less well educated. While few craftsmen or farmers, let alone dependents and servants, left literary compositions to be analyzed, it is obvious that their views were less fully intellectualized. Their thinking often had atraditional superstitious quality. A tailor named John Dane, who emigrated in the late 1630s, left an, account of his reasons for leaving England that is filled with signs. Sexual confusion, economic frustrations, and religious hope—all came together in a decisive moment when he opened the Bible, told his father that the first line he saw would settle his fate, and read the magical words: "Come out from among them, touch no unclean thing, and I will be your God and you shall be my people." One wonders what Dane thought of the careful sermons explaining the Bible that he heard in Puritan churches.
Meanwhile, many settlers had slighter religious commitments than Dane"s, as one clergyman learned in confronting folk along the coast who mocked that they had not come to the New World for religion. "Our main end was to catch fish."
A. influenced by superstitions.
1
In the seventeenth-century New England
B. illustrates a kind of landscape- orientated light conceptual art.
2
New Englanders
C. came from different intellectual backgrounds.
3
The early ministers and political leaders in Massachusetts Bay
D. intellectual interests were encouraged.
4
The story of John Dane shows that less well-educated New Englanders were often
E. brought with them the culture of the Old World.
5
Early settlers in New England
F. embodies a romantic escape into the Scottish outdoors.
G. created a new intellectual atmosphere in New England.
填空题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following text and choose the
best answer from the right column to complete each of the unfinished statements
in the left column. There are two extra choices in, the right column. Mark your
answers on the ANSWER SHEET.The human
voice, like any sound produced by thrumming a stretched string, has a
fundamental frequency. For voice, the centre of that frequency lies mostly below
300Hz depending on the speaker's sex. Information is conveyed through
simultaneous higher-frequency overtones and additional components that can
stretch up to 20,000 Hz (20kHz). Modern hearing aids are able to distinguish
only a small part of that range, typically between 300Hz and 6kHz, reducing
noise and amplifying those frequencies where the wearer's hearing is
weakest. But differentiating elements of many common parts of
speech occur in higher frequencies. This is the result both of harmonics that
ripple out from the main tone, and from non-voiced elements used to utter
consonants, which employ the tongue, teeth, cheeks and lips. Take the words
"sailing" and "failing". Cut off the higher frequencies and the two are
indistinguishable. The problem is compounded on telephone calls, which do not
transmit frequencies below 300Hz or above 3.3kHz. People with
hearing aids experience this problem constantly, says Brian Moore of the
University of Cambridge. Typical hearing loss tends to be most acute at
frequencies above 10kHz, which contain quieter sounds but where speech can still
include important cues. Older hearing aids cut off at no higher than 6kHz, but
much modern equipment stretches this range to 8-10kHz. However, a problem
remains, Dr. Moore says, because bespoke hearing-aid calibrations for individual
users, called "fittings", do not properly boost the gain of these higher
frequencies. So Dr. Moore and his colleagues have come up with a better method.
Their approach can be applied to many existing devices, and is also being built
into some newer ones. A key step in any fitting involves
testing an individual's ability to hear sounds in different frequency bands.
Each hearing loss is unique, and for most users a standard profile would be too
loud in some ranges and too soft in others. But current tests pay scant
attention to the higher frequencies that a device's tiny speaker can produce,
regardless of whether the user needs a boost. Dr. Moore's new test, known as
CAM2, which is both a set of specifications and an implementation in software,
extends and modifies fittings to include frequencies as high as 10kHz. When the
results are used to calibrate a modem hearing aid, the result is greater
intelligibility of speech compared with existing alternatives. CAM2 also
improves the experience of listening to music, which makes greater use of higher
frequencies than speech does. A．be applied to many existing
devices B．use the tongue, teeth, cheeks and lips
C．enhance the gain of higher frequencies D．pays little
attention to the higher frequencies E．reduce noise and amplify
certain frequencies F．transmit frequencies below 300Hz or above
3.3kHz G．extends and modifies fittings to include high
frequencies
填空题Directions: Read the following text and
choose the best answer from the right column to complete each of the unfinished
statements in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column.
Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.Over the past decade the government of South Africa has used mining
revenues to refurbish Soweto, the symbolic town of the apartheid era. The roads
are spotless, police patrols offer a measure of safety, children go to school.
But their parents have no jobs. Many spend their days at the Maponya Mall, a
shopping centre straight from the rich world, and their nights in shebeens,
private drinking dens that first opened when blacks could not legally visit
bars. The official national unemployment rate is 25%, but the real figure is
above 40%. If there is one country that exemplifies the
challenges awaiting Africa as it becomes richer and more developed, it is South
Africa. It has the biggest economy and the most developed democracy among the
larger African countries. However, it is also among the most unequal. In a
global ranking by Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, South Africa
comes off as one of the worst. The South African economy is growing and welfare
spending has brought down absolute poverty levels, yet the gap between rich and
poor is now wider than under apartheid. There are many reasons for this, but the
main one is the country's failure to move up the economic-development ladder.
Industrialization has stalled. Sedated by mining income, politicians and voters
see little need to make difficult adjustments. Above all, they are unwilling to
free up labour markets. The rest of the continent must learn
its lesson from this. Resource income is useful but it cannot replace other
industries. Many countries know this but, like South Africa, they fail to create
an environment in which businesses can prosper and create jobs. African
economies differ fundamentally from some of their successful Asian counterparts,
which for decades have focused on making things that other countries want to
buy, and are now doing the same for services. If Africa wants to overtake Asia,
it needs to give a higher priority to manufacturing. Will it?
Fee-hungry bankers in Johannesburg, South Africa's business capital, pronounce
the continent "ready for take-off". Business conferences are filled with talk of
African lions overtaking Asian tigers. Bob Geldof, the founder of Live Aid, is
leading the pack in his new incarnation as head of an investment
group. Sceptics are equally vocal. Some view capitalism with
suspicion and sense a return to colonialism. Others point out that every boom
comes to an end, citing the last chapter of Thomas Pakenham's otherwise
excellent book, "The Scramble for Africa", published in 1992. It depicts
Zimbabwe's independence in 1980-towards the end of an earlier commodities
boom-as a bright new dawn and applauds the rise of its first black leader, Mr.
Mugabe, who went on to bankrupt his country. A．has the most
unequal revenues B．has the worst democratic system
C．can not displace other industries D．the country fails
to boost its economy E．every prosperity will finally meets its
end F．Africa's economy will soon overtake Asia
G．has prepared for the economic development
翻译题Directions:
Translate the following text from English into Chinese.Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET2.(15 points)
When people in developing countries worry about migration,they are usually concerned at the prospect of ther best and brightest departure to Silicon Valley or to hospitals and universities in the developed world ,These are the kind of workers that countries like Britian ,Canada and Australia try to attract by using immigration rules that privilege college graduates .
Lots of studies have found that well-educated people from developing countries are particularly likely to emigrate .A big survey of Indian households in 2004 found that nearly 40%of emigrants had more than a high-school education,compared with around 3.3%of all Indians over the age of 25.This "brain drain "has long bothered policymakers in poor countries ,They fear that it hurts their economies ,depriving them of much-needed skilled workers who could have taught at their universities ,worked in their hospitals and come up with clever new products for their factories to make .
填空题A man wakes up in a New York apartment, brews coffee and goes out into the world, and everything that can appear on a smartphone or iPad appears before his eyes instead: weather reports, calendar reminders, messages from friends, his girlfriend"s smiling face. This is the promise of Google"s Project Glass. Even if the project itself never comes to fruition, though, the preview video deserves a life of its own, as a window into what our era promises and what it threatens to take away.
On the one hand, the video is a testament to modern technology"s extraordinary feats—not only instant communication across continents, but also an almost god-like access to information about the world around us. But the video also captures the sense of isolation that coexists with our technological mastery. The Man in the Google Glasses lives alone, in a drab, impersonal apartment. He has a significant other, but she"s far enough away that when sunset arrives, he climbs up on a roof and shares it with her via Video, while she grins from a window at the bottom of his field of vision.
He is, in other words, a characteristic 21st-century American, more electronically networked but more personally isolated than ever before. As the N. Y. U. sociologist Eric Klinenberg notes in
Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone,
there are now more Americans living by themselves than there are Americans in intact nuclear-family households. And friendship, too, seems to be attenuating: a 2006 Duke University study found that Americans reported having, on average, three people with whom they discussed important issues in 1985, but just two by the mid-2000s.
The question hanging over the future of American social life, then, is whether all the possibilities of virtual community can make up for the weakening of flesh-and-blood ties and the decline of traditional communal institutions.
The optimists say yes. If you believe writers like Clay Shirky, author of 2008"s
Here Comes Everybody,
the buzzing hive mind of the Internet is well on its way to generating a kind of "cognitive surplus," which promises to make group interactions even more effective and enriching than they were before the Web.
The pessimists, on the other hand, worry that online life offers only an illusion of community. In
Alone Together
, Sherry Turkle argues that the lure of Internet relationships, constantly available but inherently superficial, might make both genuine connection and genuine solitude impossible.
Seeing the world through the eyes of the Man in the Google Glasses, though, suggests a more political reason for pessimism. In his classic 1953 work,
The Quest for Community
, the sociologist Robert Nisbet argued that in eras of intense individualism and weak communal ties, an atomized, rootless population is more likely to embrace authoritarian ideologies, and more likely to seek the protection of an omnicompetent state.
Today, social media are hailed for empowering dissidents and undercutting tyrannies around the world. Yet it"s hard not to watch the Google video and agree with
Forbes
"s Kashmir Hill when she suggests that such a technology could ultimately "accelerate the arrival of the persistent and pervasive citizen surveillance state," in which everything you see and do can be recorded, reported. In this kind of world, the Man in the Google Glasses might feel like a king of infinite space. But he"d actually inhabit a comfortable, full-service cage.
A. the American household composition has undergone dramatic changes.
B. the isolation of individuals creates a hotbed for tyranny ideology.
C. internet leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them.
D. internet will wipe out the social progress human being have gained in the past centuries.
E. excessive use of internet will lead to individualism.
F. the advance of internet technology will make privacy a nearly impossible thing.
G. the internet provides a platform to deepen and expand communal ties.
Crying is hardly an activity encouraged by society. Tears, be they of sorrow, anger, or joy, typically make Americans feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. The shedder of tears is likely to apologize, even when a devastating tragedy was the provocation. The observer of tears is likely to do everything possible to put an end to the emotional outpouring. But judging from recent studies of crying behavior, links between illness and crying and the chemical composition of tears, both those responses to tears are often inappropriate and may even be counterproductive.
Humans are the only animals definitely known to shed emotional tears. Since evolution has given rise to few, if any, purposeless physiological response, it is logical to assume that crying has one or more functions that enhance survival.
Although some observers have suggested that crying is a way to elicit assistance from others (as a crying baby might from its mother), the shedding of tears is hardly necessary to get help. Vocal cries would have been quite enough, more likely than tears to gain attention. So, it appears, there must be something special about tears themselves.
Indeed, the new studies suggest that emotional tears may play a direct role in alleviating stress. University of Minnesota researchers who are studying the chemical composition of tears have recently isolated two important chemicals from emotional tears. Both chemicals are found only in tears that are shed in response to emotion. Tears shed because of exposure to a cut onion would contain no such substance.
Researchers at several other institutions are investigating the usefulness of tears as a means of diagnosing human ills and monitoring drugs.
At Tulane University"s Tear Analysis Laboratory Dr. Peter Kastl and his colleagues report that they can use tears to detect drug abuse and exposure to medication, to determine whether a contact lens fits properly or why it may be uncomfortable, to study the causes of "dry eye" syndrome and the effects of eye surgery, and perhaps even to measure exposure to environmental pollutants.
At Columbia University Dr. Liasy Faris and colleagues are studying tears for clues to the diagnosis of diseases away from the eyes. Tears can be obtained painlessly without invading the body and only tiny amounts are needed to perform highly refined analyses.
判断题Copying Birds May Save Aircraft Fuel
Both Boeing and Airbus have trumpeted the efficiency of their newest aircraft, the 787 and A350 respectively. Their clever designs and lightweight composites certainly make a difference. But a group of researchers at Stanford University, led by Ilan Kroo, has suggested that airlines could take a more naturalistic approach to cutting jet-fuel use, and it would not require them to buy new aircraft.
The answer, says Dr. Kroo, lies with birds. Since 1914, scientists have known that birds flying in formation—a V-shape—expend less energy. The air flowing over a bird"s wings curls upwards behind the wingtips, a phenomenon known as upwash. Other birds flying in the upwash experience reduced drag, and spend less energy propelling themselves. Peter Lissaman, an aeronautics expert who was formerly at Caltech and the University of Southern California, has suggested that a formation of 25 birds might enjoy a range increase of 71%.
When applied to aircraft, the principles are not substantially different. Dr. Kroo and his team modeled what would happen if three passenger jets departing from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas were to assemble over Utah, assume an inverted V formation, occasionally change places so all could have a turn in the most favourable positions, and proceed to London. They found that the aircraft consumed as much as 15% less fuel (coupled with a reduction in carbon-dioxide output). Nitrogen-oxide emissions during the cruising portions of the flight fell by around a quarter.
There are, of course, knots to be worked out. One consideration is safety, or at least the perception of it. Would passengers feel comfortable traveling in companion? Dr. Kroo points out that the aircraft could be separated by several nautical miles, and would not be in the intimate groupings favoured by display teams like the Red Arrows. A passenger peering out of the window might not even see the other planes. Whether the separation distances involved would satisfy air traffic-control regulations is another matter, although a working group at the International Civil Aviation Organisation has included the possibility of formation flying in a blueprint for new operational guidelines.
It remains to be seen how weather conditions affect the air flows that make formation flight more efficient. In zones of increased turbulence, the planes" wakes will decay more quickly and the effect will diminish. Dr. Kroo says this is one of the areas his team will investigate further. It might also be hard for airlines to co-ordinate the departure times and destinations of passenger aircraft in a way that would allow them to gain from formation flight. Cargo aircraft, in contrast, might be easier to reschedule, as might routine military flights.
As it happens, America"s armed forces are on the case already. Earlier this year the country"s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency announced plans to pay Boeing to investigate formation flight, though the programme has yet to begin. There are reports that some military aircraft flew in formation when they were low on fuel during the Second World War, but Dr. Lissaman says they are unsubstantiated. "My father was an RAF pilot and my cousin, the skipper of a Lancaster, lost over Berlin," he adds. So he should know.
翻译题Most people would define optimism as endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half fall. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimists means being in touch with reality.” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor, According to Ben- Shahar,realistic optimists are these who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.
Ben-Shahar uses three optimistic exercisers. When he feels down-say, after giving a bad lecture-he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that mot every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction, He analyzes the weak lecture, leaning lessons, for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the ground scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.
As machines go, the car is not terribly noisy, nor terribly polluting, nor terribly dangerous; and on all those dimensions it has become better as the century has grown older. The main problem is its prevalence, and the social costs that ensue from the use by everyone of something that would be fairly harmless if, say, only the rich were to use it. It is a price we pay for equality.
Before becoming too gloomy, it is worth recalling why the car has been arguably the most successful and popular product of the whole of the past 100 years—and remains so. The story begins with the environmental improvement it brought in the 1900s. In New York city in 1900, according to
The Car Culture
, a 1975 book by J. Flink, a historian, horses deposited 2.5 million pounds of manure and 60,000 gallons of urine every day. Every year, the city authorities had to remove an average of 15,000 dead horses from the streets. It made cars smell of roses.
Cars were also wonderfully flexible. The main earlier solution to horse pollution and traffic jams was the electric trolley bus. But that required fixed overhead wires, and rails and platforms, which were expensive, ugly, and inflexible. The car could go from any A to any B, and allowed towns to develop in all directions with low-density housing, rather than just being concentrated along the trolley or rail lines. Rural areas benefited too, for they became less remote.
However, since pollution became a concern in the 1950s, experts have predicted—wrongly—that the car boom was about to end. In his book Mr. Flink argued that by 1973 the American market had become saturated, at one car for every 2.25 people, and so had the markets of Japan and Western Europe (because of land shortages). Environmental worries and diminishing oil reserves would prohibit mass car use anywhere else.
He was wrong. Between 1970 and 1990, whereas America"s population grew by 23%, the number of cars on its roads grew by 60%. There is now one car for every 1.7 people there, one for every 2.1 in Japan, one for every 5.3 in Britain. Around 550 million cars are already on the roads, not to mention all the trucks and motorcycles, and about 50 million new ones are made each year worldwide. Will it go on? Undoubtedly, because people want it to.
"I"ve never met a human worth cloning," says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A~M University. "It"s a stupid endeavor." That"s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and expect to clone a cat soon. They just might succeed in cloning Missy this spring—or perhaps not for another 5 years. It seems the reproductive system of man"s best friend is one of the mysteries of modern science.
Westhusin"s experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog"s eggs, the A he"s put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M"s research.
Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy"s fine qualities after she does die. The prototype is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and supersmart. Missy"s master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament. In a statement of purpose, Missy"s owner and the A&M team say they are "both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy."
Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs. nurture. It could also lead to the cloning of special rescue dogs and many endangered animals.
However, Westhusin is cautious about his work. He knows that even if he gets a dog pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems. "Why would you ever want to clone humans," Westhusin asks, "when we"re not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?"
翻译题Think about driving a route that’s very familiar. It could be your commute to work, a trip into town or the way home. Whichever it is, you know every twist and turn like the back of your hand. On these sorts of trips it’s easy to zone out from the actual driving and pay little attention to the passing scenery. The consequence is that you perceive that the trip has taken less time than it actually has.
This is the well-travelled road effect: people tend to underestimate the time it takes to travel a familiar route.
The effect is caused by the way we allocate our attention. When we travel down a well-known route, because we don’t have to concentrate much, time seems to flow more quickly. And afterwards, when we come to think back on it, we can’t remember the journey well because we didn’t pay much attention to it. So we assume it was shorter.
问答题When Americans express indifference about the problem of unequal incomes, it"s usually because they see the United States as a land of boundless opportunity. Sure, you"ll hear it said, our country has pretty big income disparities compared with Western Europe. And sure, those disparities have been widening in recent decades. But stark economic inequality is the price we pay for living in a dynamic economy with avenues to advancement that the class-bound Old World can only dream about. We may have less equality of economic outcomes, but we have a lot more equality of economic opportunity.
The problem is, this isn"t true. Most of Western Europe today is both more equal in incomes and more economically mobile than the United States. A nation that prides itself on its lack of class rigidity has, in short, become significantly more economically rigid than many other developed countries. How did our perception of ourselves end up so inconsistent with reality?
填空题A. The wars between Indian and the settlers
B. Indians were pushed away
C. Indians, once the master of America, now live in their reservation
D. Indians are still fighting for the improvement of their lives
E. The relationship between Indians and the early settlers
F. Indians were ferocious savages
G. Indian"s struggle for their own possessions
1
When Christopher Columbus landed on America"s shores, he encountered copper-shinned people whom he promptly called "Indians". Current estimates indicate that there were over a million Indians inhabiting Indians North American then. There are approximately 800,000 Indians today, of whom about 250,000 live on reservations.
2
The early settlers had an amicable relationship with Indians, who share their knowledge about hunting, fishing and farming with their uninvited guests. The stereotyped stealthy, wicked Indian of Western movies are created by different faithless white man; the Indian was born friendly. Indian lifestyle greatly influenced the whites; whites continue to have defected to join the Indians.
3
Disgust developed between the Indians and the settlers, whose encroachment on Indian lands provoked an era of turbulence. As early as 1745, Indian tribes joined together to drive the French off their land. The French and Indian war did not end until 1763. The Indian had succeeded in destroying most of the settlements. The British, superficially submissive to the Indiana, promised that further migrations west would not extend beyond a specified boundary.
4
Evicted from their lands, or worse still, frankly giving their property to the whites for few baubles, Indians were ruthlessly pushed west. The battle in 1876 at Little Horn river in Montana, in which setting Bull and the Sioux tribes massacred General Custer"s cavalry, caused the whites intensify their campaign against the red man. The battle at Wound Knee, South Dakota, in 1890 put an end to the last vestige of hope for amity between Indians and whites.
5
Although the Bureau of Indian affairs has operated since 1842, presumably for the purpose of guarding Indians "interests", Indian on reservations lead notoriously deprived lives. Due to historical reasons, the majority of Indians are now living in remote rural areas. Most of the Indian nation also retains their traditional way of life and customs. In the multi-ethnic society in Latin America, the Indians is a vulnerable group. There are very few live in cities and towns, with formal employment, the vast majority are still living in the mainland forest, grassland areas, engaged in simple crafts such as agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fisheries, divorced from modern society. Indian ghettos suffer from economic backwardness, the difficulties of life, and low levels of health and education, and all aspects of the situation in stark contrast to the mainstream of society, simply unbearable under the dramatic impact of national modernization and economic globalization. In recent times Indians have taken a militant stand and appealed to the courts and the American people to improve their substandard living conditions.
问答题Directions:
You have just come back from Canada and found a music CD in your luggage that you forgot to return to Bob, your landlord there. Write him a letter to
1) make an apology, and 2) suggest a solution. You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.
填空题Directions: Read the following text and answer questions by
finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked
details given in the left column.There are two extra choices in the fight
column. Mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET. "The
great manufacturers in the Yorkshire and Lancashire districts tell me that,
under modern conditions, they have got into the habit of laying in supply not
for a period of two to five months but they are dependent week by week on the
importation of the raw material." So Sir George Parkin described the alarming
business practices found in Britain at the dawn of the 20th century. As a leader
of the Imperial Federation League, he sought to replace the British empire with
a bigger group of trading partners, so as to guarantee supplies. A hundred years
on, Sir George would have marveled at globalization, but been aghast that
today's manufactures measure their inventories in only a few hours of
production. The great manufacturers now have amazingly lean
operations. They have outsourced business to contractors that can do the work
more efficiently, often in places where wages are lower. A huge logistics (物流)
industry has sprung up to move stuff around the world at dazzling
speed. Containerization (集装箱运输) has slashed the cost of
shipping. Express air-freight has made overnight delivery possible to most
places on earth. Moreover, such services are within the grasp not just of the
supply departments of giant multinationals but also of anyone trading on eBay
from the spare bedroom. The logistics business is one of the
marvels of commerce, but it is not without its risks. Supply chains have become
ever more complex and extended. Some great manufacturers and great service
companies may have become too lean in their relentless drive to reduce costs,
outsourcing not just their non-core activities but essential ones too. If one
link of a company's supply chain snaps, the consequences can be grave. Ericsson
and Nokia found this out when they both relied on the same supplier for a
special chip in their mobile phones. After the chipmaker's factory was hit by
lightning, Nokia swiftly locked up all the alternative supplies whereas Ericsson
suffered a severe parts shortage and later quit making handsets on its
own. A company's best protection from its own supply chain is
to expect failure, not to hide from it. Toyota last year narrowly escaped a
parts shortage when an American supplier went bankrupt. The carmaker has now
introduced an early-warning system in Europe to try to detect any looming
problems with suppliers before they bring production lines to a halt.
The good news is that many companies are now trying to identify the choke
points and weak links in their supply chains. What about Sir George's
concern—the wider threat to national economies? With so many people worrying
about oil supplies and a bird-flu epidemic, the prospect of supply chains
collapsing around the world can seem a scary idea. It shouldn't
be. There are a few industries where it makes sense for governments to keep some
emergency stocks of a few essentials such as energy, munitions and medicines.
But the logistical disruption is not a good way for politicians to think about
everyday life, let alone to start interfering in markets.
Natural disasters are not, in fact, a common cause of supply-chain disruptions.
Most are the result of humdrum internal problems, like bad planning or the
choice of an unreliable subcontractor. That can be terrible for a particular
company, but hardly poses a threat to society at large. After all, if Ericsson
and Nokia cannot supply you with a mobile phone, Samsung would be only too happy
to get one to you tomorrow. A. be free from the interference of
markets. B. make supply chains increasingly intricate and
lengthy. C. some manufacturers and service companies outsource
their core business to contractors for more profit. D. they
outsource business to contractors that can do the work more
efficiently. E. a company should try to identify any potential
problems with suppliers in advance. F. pose a threat to society
at large. G. the logistics business is not without its
risks.
填空题A. Convincing evidence: US is losing its appeal in the eyes of multinationals
B. Biggest hindrance: US divided political system
C. American future: stuck in the middle
D. Overstated statement: US overall competitiveness is declining
E. Voice of experts: pessimism pervades academic world
F. Economic outlook: bad but not desperate
G. Undisputed fact: US is losing its economic edge
1
Is America fading? America has been gripped by worries about decline before, notably in the 1970s, only to roar back. But this time it may be serious. There is little doubt that other countries are catching up. Between 1999 and 2009 America"s share of world exports fell in almost every industry: by 36 percentage points in aerospace, nine in information technology, eight in communications equipment and three in cars. Private-sector job growth has slowed dramatically, and come to a halt in industries that are exposed to global competition. Median annual income grew by an anemic 2% between 1990 and 2010.
2
The March issue of the Harvard Business Review is devoted to "American competitiveness". The Review reports that declinism is prevalent among HBS alumni: in a survey, 71% said that American competitiveness would decline in the coming years.
3
America is losing out in the race to attract good jobs. Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth"s Tuck School of Business points out that multinational firms increased employment in America by 24% in the 1990s. But since then they have been cutting back on jobs in America. They have moved dull repetitive tasks abroad, and even some sophisticated ones, too. The proportion of the employees of American multinationals who work for subsidiaries abroad rose from 21.4% in 1989 to 32.3% in 2009. The share of research-and-development spending going to foreign subsidiaries rose from 9% in 1989 to 15.6% in 2009; that of capital investment rose from 21.8% in 1999 to 29.6% in 2009.
4
America"s political system comes in for particularly harsh criticism: 60% of HBS alumni said that it was worse than those in other advanced countries. David Moss of HBS argues that such complaints are nothing new: American politicians have been arguing about the role of government ever since Thomas Jefferson butted heads with Alexander Hamilton. But in the past this often led to fruitful compromises. But such compromises are rarer these days. Republicans and Democrats are more ideologically divided, and less inclined to make pragmatic concessions.
5
For all this gloom, the Review"s gurus argue that, as Bill Clinton said in his first inaugural address, there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. The country has huge strengths, from its world-beating universities to its tolerance of risk-taking. It has a highly diverse market: firms that seek cheap labour can move to Mississippi, where wages are a third lower than those in Massachusetts. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of HBS points to the extraordinary amount of innovation that is going on not just in Silicon Valley but across the country.
Yet it is difficult to read this collection of essays without a sense of foreboding. The one thing that worries the HBS alumni more than anything else—the state of American politics—is the most difficult to fix. The politicalsituation swings unpredictably, making it hard to plan for the future. Should companies assume that they will have to abide by Mr. Obanm"s health-care law when it comes into effect in 2014, or will the Republicans have repealed it by then? No one knows.
填空题Every year Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria"s Secret, a lingerie (女士内衣) retailer, takes a month off to travel the world looking for other companies" ideas to adopt. Mr. Wexner"s philosophy is that business should celebrate imitation.
That is almost a heresy. Businesses are told to innovate or die. Imitators are cast as the bad guys. But in the real world, companies copy and succeed. The iPod was not the first digital-music player; nor was the iPhone the first smartphone or the iPad the first tablet. Apple imitated others" products but made them far more appealing.
The pace and intensity of legal imitation has quickened in recent years, argues Oded Shenkar, a management professor at Ohio State University, in a provocative book, "Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge".
History shows that imitators often end up winners. Who now remembers Chux, the first disposable nappies, whose thunder was stolen by Pampers? Ray Kroc, who built McDonald"s, copied White Castle, inventor of the fast-food burger joint. Even Playboy magazine was just an imitator, noted Ted Levitt, one of the earliest management gurus to acknowledge the role of imitation. Copying is not only far commoner than innovation in business, wrote Levitt in the 1960s, but a surer route to growth and profits. According to "Copycats", studies show that imitators do at least as well and often better from any new product than innovators do. Followers have lower research-and-development costs, and less risk of failure because the product has already been market-tested. A study by Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis, "Pioneer Advantage: Marketing Logic or Marketing Legend", found that innovators captured only 7% of the market for their product over time.
Firms seldom admit to being copycats. But some businesspeople are willing to talk about the limitations of innovation. Kevin Rollins, a former chief executive of Dell, a computer-maker, asked, "If innovation is such a competitive weapon, why doesn"t it translate into profitability?" But most remain obsessed with their own inventions. Copying is taboo. Praise and promotion do not go to employees who borrow from other firms.
As a result, firms pay insufficient attention to the art of copying. Levitt examined a group of companies whose sales depended on regularly launching new products. None of them, he found, had either a formal or informal policy on how to respond to other firms" innovations. So they were often far too slow to imitate rivals" successes, and missed out on profits. Not much has changed since Levitt"s day. Though copying is fairly common, lots of companies fail to do it effectively. American firms in particular are too obsessed with innovation, argues Mr. Shenkar. By contrast, Asian companies—such as Panasonic, whose former parent, Matsushita, was nicknamed maneshita denki, "electronics that have been copied"—have excelled at legal imitation.
Excessive copying, of course, could be bad for society as a whole. Joseph Schumpeter worried that if innovators could not get enough reward from new products because imitators were taking so much of the profit, they would spend less on developing them. But that is not the immediate concern of corporations. Copying is here to stay; businesses may as well get good at it.
A. are too obsessed with innovation.
B. are actively involved in legal imitation.
C. discourage innovators" enthusiasm for innovation.
D. laugh last in market competition.
E. pay little attention to imitate rival"s success.
F. are slow to react to rival"s imitation.
G. explicitly discuss their suspicion about innovation.
填空题A. They who know nothing listen more
B. Women support is essential
C. Women who create pink-collar industry
D. Women: backbone for e-commerce
E. Men: pretended fashion experts
F. Men: technology savvy in fashion business
G. New form of gender equality
1
According to a 2010 report from comScore, women spend more time online than men, and they"re overrepresented in social networking, gaming, photos, blogs, and retail. Not only do women spend time online, they spend money, too—female customers make up 61% of online transactions. In a TechCrunch article on the topic, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Arleen Lee called women the "rocket fuel" of e-commerce. "Especially when it comes to social and shopping," Lee explains, "women rule the Internet."
2
Hence the surge in "pink-collar" start-ups—businesses in traditionally feminine industries like fashion, beauty, and shopping. But women aren"t the only tech entrepreneurs with their eyes on female customers. From the men behind Pinterest to the dudes who started Shoe Dazzle, smart men are defying gender stereotypes in the pursuit of great business and jumping at the chance to cash in on pink-collar opportunities.
Nils Johnson is one of the three male co-founders of Beautylish, a beauty-focused social network. What attracted three men to the female-dominated cosmetics industry? "Most engineers are guys, so they think about products for guys," Johnson explains. "When we thought about the intersection of technology and beauty, we saw a large opportunity in a market that was significantly underserved."
Josh Berman and Diego Berdakin are another great example: The duo took their expertise in technology and proximity to the heart of Hollywood and identified a huge opportunity to revolutionize e-commerce. The result was Beachmint, a designer-curated social-commerce site, which catered exclusively to women." The founders never pretended to be fashion experts," says Ara Katz, Beachmint"s Head of Creative and Partnerships. "Their strengths are in technology and operations."
3
When I asked Johnson whether he and his founders had ever encountered criticism, he groaned. "Totally. It"s reverse discrimination. They say, "Why don"t you address something that scratches your own itch?"" But Johnson adds, "I made it clear that I was going to hire the best people." In many cases, that hiring philosophy means actively seeking to hire women, and some male founders are making strategic choices to recruit women to join their founding teams. Of course, these male entrepreneurs make it clear that their co-founders aren"t just window dressing. In addition to their personal knowledge of the female market, women have brought valuable skills to their ventures.
4
These pink-collar male entrepreneurs aren"t letting gender hold them back. In fact, they even see some benefits of their outsider perspective. "It can be hard for entrepreneurs to not think their personal experiences are a proxy for the market," explained Topolovac. "Because I come to the table without emotional attachment to the answers, it"s made me a better listener."
5
Women are the economic engines of some of the Internet"s hottest markets from e-commerce to social media. It"s no wonder then that savvy entrepreneurs—both men and women—are developing ways to better serve the female market. And as with any growing industry, it takes teams of both genders to truly succeed. Just as we need more women to bring their unique perspective to traditionally male-dominated fields, so too will pink-collar industries benefit from smart, innovative men.
填空题Directions: Read the following text and answer questions by
finding a subtitle for each of the marked parts or paragraphs. There are two
extra items in the subtitles. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.A. What to do as a student? B. Various definitions of
plagiarism. C. Ideas should always be sourced.
D. Ignorance can be forgiven. E. Plagiarism is equivalent to
theft. F. The consequence of plagiarism. G.
Acknowledgement should be advocated. Scholars, writers and
teachers in the modem academic community have strong feelings about
acknowledging the use of another person's ideas. In the English-speaking world,
the term plagiarism (剽窃) is used to label the practice of not giving credit for
the source of one's ideas. Simply stated, plagiarism is "the wrongful
appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own of the ideas, or the
expression of ideas of another." {{U}} {{U}} 1
{{/U}} {{/U}} The penalties for plagiarism vary from
situation to situation. In many universities the punishment may range from
failure in a particular course to expulsion from the university. In the literary
world, where writers are protected from plagiarism by international copyright
laws, the penalty may range from a small fine to imprisonment and a mined
career. Protection of scholars and writers, through the copyright laws and
through the social pressures of the academic and literary communities, is a
relatively recent concept. Such social pressures and copyright laws require
writers to give scrupulous attention to documentation of their
sources. {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}
Students, as inexperienced scholars themselves, must avoid various types
of plagiarism by being self-critical in their use of other scholars' ideas and
by giving appropriate credit for the source of borrowed ideas and words;
otherwise dire consequences may occur. There are at least three classifications
of plagiarism as it is revealed in students' inexactness in identifying sources
properly. They are plagiarism by accident, by ignorance, and by
intention. {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}}
{{/U}} Plagiarism by accident, or oversight, sometimes is the
result of the writer's inability to decide or remember where the idea came from.
He may have read it long ago, heard it in a lecture since forgotten, or acquired
it second-hand or third-hand from discussions with colleagues. He may also have
difficulty in deciding whether the idea is such common knowledge that no
reference to the original source is needed. Although this type of plagiarism
must be guarded against, it is the least serious and, if lessons learned, can be
exempt from being severely punished. {{U}} {{U}}
4 {{/U}} {{/U}} Plagiarism through ignorance is simply
a way of saying that inexperienced writers often do not know how or when to
acknowledge their sources. The techniques for documentation-note-taking,
quoting, footnoting, listing bibliography—are easily learned and can prevent the
writer from making unknowing mistakes or omissions in his references. Although
"there is no copyright in news, or in ideas, only in the expression of them",
the writer cannot plead ignorance when his sources for ideas are
challenged. {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}}
{{/U}} The most serious kind of academic thievery is plagiarism
by intention. The writer, limited by his laziness and dullness, copies the
thoughts and language of others and claims them for his own. He not only steals;
he tries to deceive the reader into believing the ideas are original. Such words
as immoral, dishonest, offensive, and despicable are used to describe the
practice of plagiarism by intention. The opposite of plagiarism
is acknowledgement. All mature and trustworthy writers make use of the ideas of
others but they are careful to acknowledge their indebtedness to their sources.
Students, as developing scholars, writers, teachers, and professional leaders,
should recognize and assume their responsibility to document all sources from
which language and thoughts are borrowed. Other members of the profession will
not only respect the scholarship; they will admire the humility and
honesty.
填空题A. Personal affairs cause accidents
B. Accidents are caused by people rather than take place by themselves
C. Uncertain factors that cause accident
D. Accidents take place due to carelessness or thoughtlessness
E. Other factors causing accidents
F. Why the accidents happened
G. Some accidents are avoidable
1
Accidents are caused; they don"t just happen. The reason may be easy to see: an overloaded tray, a shelf out of reach, a patch of ice on the road. But more often than not there is a chain of events leading up to the misfortune—frustration, tiredness or just bad temper—that shows what the accident really is, a sort of attack on oneself.
2
Road accidents, for example, happen frequently after a family quarrel, and we all know people who are accident-prone, so that at odds with themselves and the world that they seem to cause to accidents for themselves and others.
3
By definition, an accident is something you can"t predict or provide, and the idea which used to be current, that the majority of road accidents are caused by a minority of criminally careless drivers, is not supported by insurance statistics. These show that most accidents involve ordinary motorists in a moment of carelessness and thoughtlessness.
4
It is not always, clear, either, what sort of conditions make people more likely to have an accident. For instance, the law requires all factories to make safety precautions and most companies have safety committees to make sure the regulations are observed, but still, every day in Britain, some fifty thousand men and women are absent from work due to an accident.
5
Some accidents are largely results of human error or misjudgment—noise and fatigue, boredom or worries are possible factors, which contribute to this. Doctors who work in factories have found that those who drink too much, usually people, who have an anxiety level, run three times the normal risk of accidents at work.
填空题As companies continue to cut costs, the days of frequent promotions are a distant memory. So are the days of endless opportunities to show off your skills. Layoff survivors, faced with fewer options are finding themselves in career purgatory—there"s no way up and no way out.
After talking to career coaches, managers, recruiters, and psychologists, Fortune put together eight tips to help workers break free from the inertia.
1
Avoid taking cover
Don"t hide out behind your computer. "You should really work to increase or maintain the visibility that you have," says David Opton, founder and CEO of career management firm ExecuNet.
Build a circle of allies
Fortify your current relationships and work on making new ones, both within and outside the office. "Allies will be helpful in terms of letting you know information, like if there"s a job possibility that comes up," says Dee Soder, founder of the CEO Perspective Group. Who you know can make a big difference, especially in difficult times.
2
Load up on new tools
This is the perfect time to acquire new expertise. (If the boss can"t pay, do it on your own.)
3
Look beyond your job description
People don"t get promotions just because they do their jobs well; they get promotions because they take initiative. Lauren Doliva, a partner at recruiting firm Heidrick identify your weaknesses and work on them; find better ways to harness your strengths. For nontangible skills— leadership, management, communication—coaches recommend hiring a coach. A client of Soder"s was put into a new management role, but didn"t feel like she had what it took to oversee a bigger team. She went out and hired a coach who helped her learn how to interact with top executives as well as how to run a bigger territory. She has since been promoted again.
Taking responsibility for your own success is something everyone should do, regardless of external factors. Otherwise you"re heading straight for burnout.
5
Adjust your attitude
Don"t panic. Even though the economy is in a recession, your career is not coming to an end. How you look at the situation will have a big impact on whether you stay stuck or move ahead. "One can choose to say there is no opportunity or one can choose to look for it," says Doliva. In fact, many coaches believe that being stuck is just a state of mind.
A. Let people know when you accomplish something or when you put in the extra effort to get a project done early. Without being cheesy, make sure that you"re giving off the right vibes by keeping a positive attitude, avoiding emotional outbursts, and appearing calm and organized. And don"t forget to look the part. Many didn"t get promotions because of their professional presence—grooming, clothes, and body language.
B. When someone brought up the VP of operations, who was the obvious candidate for the job, the CEO rejected him outright. "He said no because the VP only does what"s expected," says Doliva. "The CEO didn"t see him as someone who would take the risks and the time to do the job better." Now is not the time for complacency, even if you"re not gunning for a spot in the executive suite. Coaches suggest that employees come in early, stay late, and take on extra projects. Little things can make a big difference.
C. Brush up on computer skills, audit a class, or get a certificate or degree in your field--and when jobs do open up, you"ll be ready.
D. "What you don"t want to do is start getting depressed", adds Melissa Karz, founder of Kadima Coaching. "Be what you want to attract." It might be helpful to hunt for motivation in other places. "Now is the time to start taking a look at how fulfilling your life is outside of work," says Lois Frankel, president of Corporate Coaching International. Find exciting activities to replenish yourself with--and then bring that positive spirit into the office.
E. Amid all of the layoffs, you"ve managed to keep your job--but the chances of moving up are slim to none. Nobody above you is going to leave now, and there"s no money for special projects to prove yourself. You"re stuck. Here"s how to avoid fading into the woodwork.
F. Speak up in meetings, join task forces, and volunteer for difficult projects that co-workers aren"t willing to tackle.
填空题Directions: Read the following text and
choose the best answer from the right column to complete each of the unfinished
statements in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column.
Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.The casino at the smart Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the
Bahamas is bigger than 20 tennis court. Tourists flit from slot machine to
roulette table, drift past Temples of the Sun and Moon and walk by Crystal Gate
and Poseidon's Throne. But the only Bahamians in sight are waiters, croupier and
cashiers. The Bahamas legalised casino gambling in 1969, when
they were still a British colony. But mainly because of the influence of local
pastors, both Bahamians and foreigners who live in the country are banned from
gambling. This has not stopped residents from placing bets.
Instead, they gamble off the books in "number houses" or "webshops"—legal
internet cafes that offer illegal bets on the side and operate in plain sight.
These have mushroomed in recent years, even as tourism has stagnated and hotels
have reduced staff. This pretence will be put to the test on January 28th, when
a referendum will be held on legalising gambling in web shops, as well as on a
separate proposal to set up a national lottery. The well-funded
campaign supporting the initiative has been distributing posters and T-shirts.
It argues that web shops account for almost 2% of jobs in the country, and that
gambling taxes could help close the budget deficit. The "no" movement, which
calls itself "Save Our Bahamas", is led by the islands' evangelical churches.
Perry Christie, the prime minister, says he has "no horse in the race". The
opposition accuses him, without proof, of running a "fixed" referendum on behalf
of web-shop owners who back him financially. If the proposal is
approved, the government will probably try to pass a series of reforms supported
by the big hotel casinos. In order to compete with Las Vegas, New Jersey or
Macau, they say, they need authorisation for credit-card payment for chips,
online and mobile wagers, private VIP gaming rooms and betting on sports matches
while play is in progress. They also want stronger legal tools to collect unpaid
debts and the right to void payments caused by computer errors. The tourism
minister has already announced support for these policies. However, letting
Bahamians into the casinos is not yet on the agenda. A．are
prohibited from gambling B．are waiters, croupier and
cashiers C．is bigger than twenty tennis court
D．may try to pass a series of reforms E．are internet cafes that
offer illegal bets F．is accused of running a fixed
referendum G．is led by the islands' evangelical churches
填空题A. Be silly
B. Have fun
C. Express your emotions
D. Don"t overthink it
E. Be easily pleased
F. Notice things
G. Ask for help
As adults, it seems that we are constantly pursuing happiness, often with mixed results. Yet children appear to have it down to an art—and for the most part they don"t need self-help books or therapy. Instead, they look after their wellbeing instinctively, and usually more effectively than we do as grownups. Perhaps it"s time to learn a few lessons from them.
1
What does a child do when he"s sad? He cries. When he"s angry? He shouts. Scared? Probably a bit of both. As we grow up, we learn to control our emotions so they are manageable and don"t dictate our behaviours, which is in many ways a good thing. But too often we take this process too far and end up suppressing emotions, especially negative ones. That"s about as effective as brushing dirt under a carpet and can even make us ill. What we need to do is find a way to acknowledge and express what we feel appropriately, and then—again like children—move.
2
A couple of Christmases ago, my youngest stepdaughter, who was nine years old at the time, got a Superman T-shirt for Christmas. It cost less than a fiver but she was overjoyed, and couldn"t stop talking about it. Too often we believe that a new job, bigger house or better car will be the magic silver bullet that will allow us to finally be content, but the reality is these things have very little lasting impact on our happiness levels. Instead, being grateful for small things every day is a much better way to improve wellbeing.
3
Have you ever noticed how much children laugh? If we adults could indulge in a bit of silliness and giggling, we would reduce the stress hormones in our bodies, increase good hormones like endorphins, improve blood flow to our hearts and even have a greater chance of fighting off infection. All of which, of course, have a positive effect on happiness levels.
4
The problem with being a grown up is that there"s an awful lot of serious stuff to deal with—work, mortgage payments, figuring out what to cook for dinner. But as adults we also have the luxury of being able to control our own diaries and it"s important that we schedule in time to enjoy the things we love. Those things might be social, sporting, creative or completely random (dancing around the living room, anyone?)—it doesn"t matter, so long as they"re enjoyable, and not likely to have negative side effects, such as drinking too much alcohol or going on a wild spending spree if you"re on a tight budget.
5
Having said all of the above, it"s important to add that we shouldn"t try too hard to be happy. Scientists tell us this can backfire and actually have a negative impact on our wellbeing. As the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu is reported to have said: "Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness." And in that, once more, we need to look to the example of our children, to whom happiness is not a goal but a natural byproduct of the way they live.
填空题A. Not giving bonus to employees who deserve it
B. Not giving positive information
C. Not linking individual jobs to the big picture
D. Not recognizing and rewarding great performance
E. Failure to get employees obsessive about winning
F. Not giving feedback
G. Failure to give a clear vision of winning
Over the years, Gallup has surveyed millions of employees and customers on a variety of workplace issues. One very interesting fact emerges from all their research. Of all the employees Gallup has surveyed, just over half have a clear understanding of what"s expected of them when they show up to work every day.
And we wonder why excellence is such a rare commodity in the corporate world! As leaders, the things we don"t do or say often have more of an impact than those that we do. So I took my own informal poll and came up with the top five things managers
don"t
do that undermine excellence in organizations.
1
Nothing is more important to creating a culture of excellence than defining what winning looks like for your organization, for teams and for individuals. Having a clear definition of winning provides focus and clarity at every level. It gets everyone aligned and moving in the same direction. It motivates and inspires people to perform at their best. And when unexpected adversity occurs, it gives people an anchor to rally around and keep their energy and spirits high.
2
It"s not enough just todefine winning. To keep employees focused on winning, you have to infuse it into your employees" minds! Otherwise, people get so distracted by everything they have on their plates that they lose sight of the big picture.
3
Today"s employees want feedback, and lots of it! Without it, people don"t know where they stand in regards to performance expectations. More important, when you don"t tell employees how they"re doing, it sends the message that you don"t care. Without feedback, people make up information to fill the void. This made-up information is almost always negative. Giving regular feedback helps to prevent destructive "information gaps," and strengthens relationships between employees and their supervisors. It also leads to improved work quality, increased accountability, and a higher-performing work environment.
4
Most employees want to feel like they"re doing more than just earning a paycheck. Start by making sure every individual job actually supports getting to your destination. Then let people know—specifically—how their jobs contribute to winning and why it"s so important for them to perform at a high level. This makes it easier to set priorities, make decisions that support reaching your destination, and eliminate activities that get in the way of achieving the goal.
5
As leaders, we all know we need to acknowledge and reward employees for top performance. And I"m not talking about an automatic 1% bonus at the end of the year. I"m talking about small, ongoing, personalized rewards that show employees you really appreciate the effort they put in.
Nothing lets the air out of the excellence balloon quicker than a perceived attitude of indifference on the part of management. And nothing shouts "indifference" louder than failing to perform your job as a leader. Put these five tasks on your daily to-do list and watch your employees" performance soar! Don"t do them and don"t be surprised by a lack of excellence in your organization.
填空题A. You are not alone
B. Don"t fear responsibility for your life
C. Pave your own unique path
D. Most of your fears are unreal
E. Think about the present moment
F. Experience helps you grow
G. There are many things to be grateful for
Some Old Truths to Help You Overcome Tough Times
Unfortunately, life is not a bed of roses. We are going through life facing sad experiences. Moreover, we are grieving various kinds of loss: a friendship, a romantic relationship or a house. Hard times may hold you down at what usually seems like the most inopportune time, but you should remember that they won"t last forever.
When our time of mourning is over, we press forward, stronger with a greater understanding and respect for life. Furthermore, these losses make us mature and eventually move us toward future opportunities for growth and happiness. I want to share these old truths I"ve learned along the way.
1
Fear is both useful and harmful. This normal human reaction is used to protect us by signaling danger and preparing us to deal with it. Unfortunately, people create inner barriers with a help of exaggerating fears. My favorite actor Will Smith once said, "Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But fear is a choice." I do completely agree that fears are just the product of our luxuriant imagination.
2
If you are surrounded by problems and cannot stop thinking about past, try to focus on the present moment. Many of us are weighed down by the past or anxious about the future. You may feel guilt over your past, but you are poisoning the present with the things and circumstances you cannot change. Value the present moment and remember how fortunate you are to be alive. Enjoy the beauty of the world around and keep the eyes open to see the possibilities before you. Happiness is not a point of future and not a moment from the past, but a mindset that can be designed into the present.
3
Sometimes it is easy to feel bad because you are going through tough times. You can be easily caught up by life problems that you forget to pause and appreciate the things you have. Only strong people prefer to smile and value their life instead of crying and complaining about something.
4
No matter how isolated you might feel and how serious the situation is, you should always remember that you are not alone. Try to keep in mind that almost everyone respects and wants to help you if you are trying to make a good change in your life, especially your dearest and nearest people. You may have a circle of friends who provide constant good humor, help and companionship. If you have no friends or relatives, try to participate in several online communities, full of people who are always willing to share advice and encouragement.
5
Today many people find it difficult to trust their own opinion and seek balance by gaining objectivity from external sources. This way you devalue your opinion and show that you are incapable of managing your own life. When you are struggling to achieve something important you should believe in yourself and be sure that your decision is the best. You live in your skin, think your own thoughts, have your own values and make your own choices.
填空题A. The famous athletes in the Games
B. The origin of Olympic Games
C. Interruption of the Games
D. Honor given to the winners
E. Olympic Games held nowadays
F. Hosting countries of the Games
G. Spectators and events of the ancient Games
1
In ancient Greece athletic festivals were very important and had strong religious associations. The Olympian athletic festival held every four years in honor of Zeus, king of the Olympian Gods, eventually lost its local character, became first a national event and then, after the rules against foreign competitors had been abolished, international. No one knows exactly how far back the Olympic Games go, but some official records date from 776 BC. But before that, the ancient Olympic Games may have existed for centuries. In the long history of human development, in addition to the ancient religion of social and cultural phenomenon, the Olympic movement can be regarded as one of the oldest social and cultural phenomenon.
2
The games took place in August on the plain by Mount Olympus. Many thousands of spectators gathered from all parts of Greece, but no married woman, was admitted even as a spectator. Slaves, women and dishonored persons were not allowed to compete. The exact sequence of events is uncertain, but events included boy"s gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, horse racing and field events, though there were fewer sports involved than in the modem Olympic Games.
3
On the last day of the Games, all the winners were honored by having a ring of holy olive leaves placed on their heads. So great was the honor that the winner of the foot race gave his name to the year of his victory. Although Olympic winners received no prize money, they were, in fact, richly rewarded by their state authorities. How their results compared with modem standards, we unfortunately have no means of telling.
4
After an uninterrupted history of almost 1,200 years, the Games were suspended by the Romans in 394 AD. They continued for such a long time because people believed in the philosophy behind the Olympics: the idea that a healthy body produced a healthy mind, and that the spirit of competition in sports and games was preferable to the competition that caused wars. It was over 1,500 years before another such international athletic gathering took place in Athens in 1896. In 1896 year 6 April to 15 April, Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games.
5
Nowadays, the Games are held in different countries in turn. The host country provides vast facilities, including a stadium, swimming pools and living accommodation, but competing countries pay their own athlete"s expenses. The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch, lighted on Mount Olympus by the sun"s rays. It is carried by a succession of runners to the stadium. The torch symbolizes the continuation of the ancient Greek athletic ideals, and it burns throughout the Games until the closing ceremony. So the torch symbolizes peace, light, and so the significance of unity and friendship. The well-known Olympic flag, however, is a modem conception: the five interlocking rings symbolize the uniting of all five continents participating in the Games. Among them, the blue represents Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Oceania, red for the Americas.
Throughout the nation"s more than 15,000 school districts, widely differing approaches to teaching science and math have emerged. Though there can be strength in diversity, a new international analysis suggests that this variability has instead contributed to lackluster achievement scores by U.S. children relative to their peers in other developed countries.
Indeed, concludes William H. Schmidt of Michigan State University, who led the new analysis, "no single intellectually coherent vision dominates U.S. educational practice in math or science." The reason, he said, "is because the system is deeply and fundamentally flawed."
The new analysis, released this week by the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., is based on data collected from about 50 nations as part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study.
Not only do approaches to teaching science and math vary among individual U. S. communities, the report finds, but there appears to be little strategic focus within a school district"s curricula, its textbooks, or its teachers" activities. This contrasts sharply with the coordinated national programs of most other countries.
On average, U.S. students study more topics within science and math than their international counterparts do. This creates an educational environment that "is a mile wide and an inch deep," Schmidt notes.
For instance, eighth graders in the United States cover about 33 topics in math versus just 19 in Japan. Among science courses, the international gap is even wider. U.S. curricula for this age level resemble those of a small group of countries including Australia, Thailand, Iceland, and Bulgaria. Schmidt asks whether the United States wants to be classed with these nations, whose educational systems "share our pattern of splintered visions" but which are not economic leaders.
The new report "couldn"t come at a better time," says Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association in Arlington. "The new National Science Education Standards provide that focused vision," including the call "to do less, but in greater depth."
Implementing the new science standards and their math counterparts will be the challenge, he and Schmidt agree, because the decentralized responsibility for education in the United States requires that any reforms be tailored and instituted one community at a time.
In fact, Schmidt argues, reforms such as these proposed national standards "face an almost impossible task, because even though they are intellectually coherent, each becomes only one more voice in the babble."
In 1985 when a Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet crashed, its president, Yasumoto Takagi, called each victim"s family to apologize, and then promptly resigned. And in 1987, when a subsidiary of Toshiba sold sensitive military technology to the former Soviet Union, the chairman of Toshiba gave up his post.
These executive actions, which Toshiba calls "the highest form of apology," may seem bizarre to US managers. No one at Boeing resigned after the JAL crash, which may have been caused by a faulty Boeing repair.
The difference between the two business cultures centers around different definitions of delegation. While US executives give both responsibility and authority to their employees, Japanese executives delegate only authority—the responsibility is still theirs. Although the subsidiary that sold the sensitive technology to the Soviets had its own management, the Toshiba top executives said they "must take personal responsibility for not creating an atmosphere throughout the Toshiba group that would make such activity unthinkable, even in an independently run subsidiary."
Such acceptance of community responsibility is not unique to businesses in Japan. School principals in Japan have resigned when their students committed major crimes after school hours. Even if they do not quit, Japanese executives will often accept primary responsibility in other ways, such as taking the first pay cut when a company gets into financial trouble. Such personal sacrifices, even if they are largely symbolic, help to create the sense of community and employee loyalty that is crucial to the Japanese way of doing business.
Harvard Business School professor George Lodge calls the ritual acceptance of blame "almost a feudal way of purging the community of dishonor~," and to some in the United States, such resignations look cowardly. However, in an era in which both business and governmental leaders seem particularly good at evading responsibility, many US managers would probably welcome an infusion of the Japanese sense of responsibility. If, for instance, US automobile company executives offered to reduce their own salaries before they asked their workers to take pay cuts, negotiations would probably take on a very different character.
填空题Directions: Read the following text and
choose the best answer from the right column to complete each of the unfinished
statements in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column.
Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.A
young consultant's life is tiring. A typical week starts before dawn on Monday,
with a rush to the airport and a flight to wherever the client is based. A
typical brain-for-hire can expect to stay in hotels at least three nights a
week, texting a distant lover. "It's quite normal to spend a year living out of
a suitcase," sighs one London-based consultant. An ex-McKinseyite in New York
adds that 15 to 18-hour weekdays are normal and six to eight-hour Saturdays and
Sundays common. It can be draining, she admits. So the job
appeals to "insecure over-achievers"—a phrase widely used in the industry—"who
are always worried that they haven't done enough work," jokes a former employee
of Bain except
enough sleep. A．holds that consultants have to travel
much B．claims that everything may happen in London
C．says that it is not uncommon to have long working hours
D．states that consultants always worry they have done too
little E．admits that it is regretful to work for a company
outside London F．argues that small cities also need smart
people to do smart things G．thinks that young consultants get
to experience life in the real world
I had an experience some years ago which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to officiate at two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died "full of years," as the Bible would say: both yielded to the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence calls on the two families on the same afternoon.
At the first home, the son of the deceased woman said to me, "If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It"s my fault that she died." At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, "If only I hadn"t insisted on my mother"s going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the abrupt change of climate, was more than she could take. It"s my fault that she"s dead."
When things don"t turn out as we would like them to, it is very tempting to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Priests know that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course—keeping Mother at home, postponing the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?
There seem to be two elements involved in our readiness to feel guilt. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.
The second element is the notion that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood. Psychologists speak of the infantile myth of omnipotence. A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that infantile notion that our wishes cause things to happen.
填空题The Health Risks of Small Apartments
New York City has a housing problem. Currently, it has 1.8 million one-and two-person households, and only one million studios and one-bedroom apartments. The obvious solution seems to be to develop more small residential units. But as New York City"s "micro-apartment" project inches closer to reality, experts warn that micro-living may not be the urban panacea we"ve been waiting for.
"Sure, these micro-apartments may be fantastic for young professionals in their 20"s," says Dak Kopec, director of design for human health at Boston Architectural College. "But they definitely can be unhealthy for older people, say in their 30"s and 40"s, who face different stress factors that can make tight living conditions a problem." Research, Kopec says, has shown that crowding-related stress can increase rates of domestic violence and substance abuse.
For all of us, daily life is a sequence of events, he explains. But most people don"t like adding extra steps to everyday tasks. Because micro-apartments are too small to hold basic furniture like a bed, table, and couch at the same time, residents must reset their quarters throughout the day. In this case, residents might eventually stop folding up their furniture every day and the space will start feeling even more constrained.
Susan Saegert, professor of environmental psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center agrees that the micro- apartments will likely be a welcome choice for young New Yorkers. But she warns that tiny living conditions can be terrible for other residents—particularly if a couple or a parent and child squeeze into 300 square feet for the long term, no matter how well a unit is designed. "I"ve studied children in crowded apartments and low-income housing a lot," Saegert said, "and they can end up becoming withdrawn, and have trouble studying and concentrating."
"When we think about micro-living, we have a tendency to focus on functional things, like is there enough room for the fridge," explained University of Texas psychology professor Samuel Gosling, who studies the connection between people and their possessions. "But an apartment has to fill other psychological needs as well, such as self-expression and relaxation, which might not be as easily met in a highly confined space."
On the other hand, Eugenie L. Birch, professor of urban research and education at the University of Pennsylvania, says this certainly isn"t the first time we"ve had this debate over micro-living. New York has grappled with the public health costs of crowded living conditions and minimum apartment standards throughout its history.
Rolf Pendall, director of the Urban Institute"s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center asks: Where would all these people be doing business and living without the density? Would they be commuting longer distances or earning less, and is living farther from economic opportunities "better" for them? In that context, Pendall says he welcomes micro-apartments as long as they fit within the larger housing ecology of the city, and don"t ultimately displace other types of units for families.
For this project, while New York may be taking a step backwards in terms of square footage, Eric Bunge, working at Architects, (the firm that created the winning micro-apartment design), is firm that the city is taking a big step forward in terms of actual living conditions. "The city sees this initiative as one mechanism in a set of complex issues," Bunge says. "Nobody is claiming that micro-apartments will be a silver bullet."
A. micro-apartments should be welcomed as long as they do solve the housing problems for some people.
B. micro-apartments may not fill people"s psychological needs.
C. micro-apartments will be an attempt help to solve the housing problems, but not a cure yet.
D. micro-apartments may be welcomed by the elder people.
E. narrow living conditions may cause the increase of domestic violence.
F. children growing up in crowded apartments may have trouble studying and concentrating.
G. micro-apartments may be unhealthy for young people to live.
填空题A. What to do as a student?
B. Various definitions of plagiarism
C. Ideas should always be sourced
D. Ignorance can be forgiven
E. Plagiarism is equivalent to theft
F. The consequences of plagiarism
G. The relation between journals and plagiarism Scholars, writers and teachers in the modern academic community have strong feelings about acknowledging the use of another person"s ideas. In the English-speaking world, the term plagiarism is used to label the practice of not giving credit for the source of one"s ideas. Simply stated, plagiarism is "the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one"s own of the ideas, or the expression of ideas of another."
41. ______
The penalties for plagiarism vary from situation to situation. In many universities, the punishment may range from failure in a particular course to expulsion from the university. In the literary world, where writers are protected from plagiarism by international copyright laws, the penalty may range from a small fine to imprisonment and a ruined career. Protection of scholars and writers, through the copyright laws and through the social pressures of the academic and literary communities, is a relatively recent concept. Such social pressures and copyright laws require writers to give scrupulous attention to documentation of their sources.
42. ______
Students, as inexperienced scholars themselves, must avoid various types of plagiarism by being self-critical in their use of other scholars" ideas and by giving appropriate credit for the source of borrowed ideas and words, otherwise dire consequences may occur. There are at least three classifications of plagiarism as it is revealed in students" inexactness in identifying sources properly. They are plagiarism by accident, by ignorance, and by intention.
43. ______
Plagiarism by accident, or oversight, sometimes is the result of the writer"s inability to decide or remember where the idea came from. He may have read it long ago, heard it in a lecture since forgotten, or acquired it second-hand or third-hand from discussions with colleagues. He may also have difficulty in deciding whether the idea is such common knowledge that no reference to the original source is needed. Although this type of plagiarism must be guarded against, it is the least serious and, if lessons learned, can be exempt from being severely punished.
44. ______
Plagiarism through ignorance is simply a way of saying that inexperienced writers often do not know how or when to acknowledge their sources. The techniques for documentation—note-taking, quoting, footnoting, listing bibliography—are easily learned and can prevent the writer from making unknowing mistakes or omissions in his references. Although "there is no copyright in news, or in ideas, only in the expression of them," the writer cannot plead ignorance when his sources for ideas are challenged.
45. ______
The most serious kind of academic thievery is plagiarism by intention. The writer, limited by his laziness and dullness, copies the thoughts and language of others and claims them for his own. He not only steals, he tries to deceive the reader into believing the ideas are original. Such words as immoral, dishonest, offensive, and despicable are used to describe the practice of plagiarism by intention.
The opposite of plagiarism is acknowledgement. All mature and trustworthy writers make use of the ideas of others but they are careful to acknowledge their indebtedness to their sources. Students, as developing scholars, writers, teachers, and professional leaders, should recognize and assume their responsibility to document all sources from which language and thoughts are borrowed. Other members of the profession will not only respect the scholarship, they will admire the humility and honesty.
问答题Karaoke is a very popular form of entertainment in Asia. Karaoke was first made popular by Daisuke Inoue in Kobe, Japan, in 1971. By the 1980s, there was a vast array of karaoke products on the market in Asia. The video game, Karaoke Revolution, was released in the year of 2003. In this game, players could receive a score based on their singing performance. Karaoke services then became available through mobile phones, and users could also play karaoke songs using software on their personal computers. Websites started popping up all over the Internet, creating a global karaoke community. On these sites, singers can record and even video themselves performing. Even some car manufacturers jumped on the karaoke bandwagon and had karaoke players installed as part of a car"s DVD player. There are even VCDs available now for Chinese opera karaoke, so that the elderly can have fun singing songs of the past.
翻译题Who would have thought that, globally, the IT industry produces about the same volumes of greenhouse gases as the world’s airlines do-rough 2 percent of all CO2 emissions?
Many everyday tasks take a surprising toll on the environment. A Google search can leak between 0.2 and 7.0 grams of CO2 depending on how many attempts are needed to get the “right” answer. To deliver results to its users quickly, then, Google has to maintain vast data centres round the world, packed with powerful computers. While producing large quantities of CO2, these computers emit a great deal of heat, so the centres need to be well air-conditioned, which uses even more energy.
However, Google and other big tech providers monitor their efficiency closely and make improvements. Monitoring is the first step on the road to reduction, but there is much to be done, and not just by big companies.
填空题A. Medicate with caution and see a doctor.
B. Go to bed early.
C. Get rid of time cues.
D. Get out of bed.
E. Try relaxation techniques.
F. Ease anxiety.
G. Take medicine when you are sleepless.
How to Fall Asleep?
It"s 4 a. m.: you should be sleeping! You should be logging those crucial seven-plus hours of quality sleep each night, and the frustration that you cannot fall asleep will make you feel angrier at this 4: 02 a. m. stare session. And it"s hard to fall asleep when you"re infuriated.
So what do you do? The tips below might help you sleep easier. Here"s the advice of Eric Olson, co-director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minn., and Harneet Walia, a doctor in the Cleveland Clinic"s Sleep Disorders Center:
1
When you lie awake in bed, you send yourself the wrong message. "You"re basically training your body not to sleep in bed, but to lie there and not sleep," Dr. Walia says. "And your mind can get conditioned to that." So if you"re unable to sleep for about a 15 or 20 minute stretch, try something relaxing and non-stimulating. Listen to music. Read a book. Whatever activity you choose, do it away from bed, and return when you"re feeling tired.
2
Use whatever relaxation tips you know to combat this inappropriately timed alertness. Try your favorite calming yoga pose. Neuroscience researcher Catherine Kerr explains a simple way of relaxing through breathing. You simply note the rising and falling of your breath, and focus on the parts of your body where you feel your breath, whether it"s in the lungs, tip of your nose or elsewhere. Visualization is another classic relaxing technique, in which you picture yourself someplace pleasant and calm. And what about the mother of all sleep remedies— counting sheep? Olson views this as a "mental distraction technique," like visualization. He says, "You"re getting your mind off of "I can"t sleep" and onto something else."
3
Sometimes the sleeplessness stems from worry. Your brain is overworking, thinking about your bank account and the big meeting tomorrow. For people who consistently have trouble "quieting the mind" at night, Dr. Olson suggests trying "to train your mind to think about those things at more appropriate times of the day." By systematically documenting these worries during the day, ideally, you"ll be less likely to focus on them at night.
4
Another common anxiety that hides in the wee hours of a sleepless night is the mounting awareness that you"re not asleep when you should be. Stress and frustration increase as you worry about how you need to be up for work in four (or three or two) hours. The experts" suggestion? Get rid of time cues. "No clock watching," Walia says, "That"s a big no-no. Turn the clock around."
5
Whether prescription or over-the-counter, Dr. Walia and Dr. Olson do not recommend drugs as a first choice for relieving sleeplessness. Ideally, the tips above and improved sleep hygiene should do the trick. But, should you choose a sleep aid, Olson reminds people that, of course, they make you sleepy. If your sleeplessness is frequent and influencing your daytime behavior, bring it up with your physician. "When people start to feel like they"re worried about their sleep during the day, that"s probably the time when they need some guidance," Olson says.
单选题In a time of low academic achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. However, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents listed "to give children a good start academically" as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The vast majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents.
In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondentschose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. Sixty-two percent of the more individually oriented Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education.
Like in America, there is diversity in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools.
Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children"s chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.
填空题Directions: Read the following text and answer questions by
finding a subtitle for each of the marked parts or paragraphs. There are two
extra items in the subtitles. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.A. Importance of pursuing happiness B. Capitalism, a
double-edged sword C. The modification of the traditional
criterion D. The thing that cannot be attained
E. The wave of the emerging notion F. A paradox in
question G. The unparalleled economic growth
Having grown at an annual rate of 3.2% per head since 2000, the world economy is
over half way towards catching up with its best decade ever. If it keeps going
at this speed, it will beat both the supposedly perfect 1950s and the 1960s.
Market capitalism, the engine that runs most of the world economy, seems to be
doing its job well. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}}
{{/U}} But is it? Once upon a time, that job was generally agreed
to be to make people better off. Nowadays that's not so clear. A number of
economists, in search of big problems to solve, and politicians, looking for
bold promises to make, think that it ought to be doing something else: making
people happy. {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}}
{{/U}} The view that economics should be about more than money is
widely held in continental Europe. In debates with Anglo-American capitalists,
sly extravagant nobles have tended to cite the idea of "quality of life" to
excuse slower economic growth. But now David Cameron, the latest leader of
Britain's once rather materialistic Conservative Party, has upheld the notion of
"general well-being" (GWB) as an alternative to more traditional GDP. In
America, meanwhile, inequality, overwork and other hidden costs of prosperity
were much discussed in the mid-term elections; and "wellness" (as opposed to
health) has become a huge industry, catering especially to the prosperous
discontent of the baby-boomers. {{U}} {{U}} 3
{{/U}} {{/U}} Much of this draws on the upstart science of
happiness, which mixes psychology with economics. Its adherents start with
abundant survey data, such as those derived from the simple, folksy question put
to thousands of Americans every year or two since 1972:"Taken all together, how
would you say things are these days—would you say that you are very happy,
pretty happy or not too happy?" Some of the results are unsurprising: the rich
report being happier than do the poor. But a paradox emerges that requires
explanation: affluent countries have not got much happier as they have grown
richer. From America to Japan, figures for wellbeing have barely
changed. {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}
The science of happiness offers two explanations for the paradox.
Capitalism, it notes, is good at turning luxuries into necessities—bringing to
the masses what the elites have always enjoyed. But the flip side of this genius
is that people come to take for granted things they once desired from afar.
Frills (不实用的装饰) they never thought they could have become essentials that they
cannot do without. People are stuck on a monotonous lifestyle: as they achieve a
better standard of living, they become accustomed to its pleasures.
{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}} Capitalism's
ability to take things downmarket also has its limits. Many of the things people
most prize—such as the top jobs, the best education, or an exclusive home
address—are luxuries by necessity. An elite schooling, for example, ceases to be
so if it is provided to everyone. These "positional goods", as they are called,
are in fixed supply: you can enjoy them only if others do not. The amount of
money and effort required to grab them depends on how much your rivals are
putting in.
问答题Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.WriteyouressayontheANSWERSHEET.