问答题In the past year, a lot has changed in the field of human spaceflight. (46)In January, President George Bush brushed aside the fact that America's entire space-shuttle fleet was grounded when he announced grandiose plans to put people back on the moon, and then to launch a manned mission to Mars. (47) In June, Burt Rutan, an American aeronautical engineer, showed that human spaceflight was no longer the preserve of governments by sending a man to the edge of space in Space Ship One, a privately financed vehicle that cost about the same to build as a luxury yacht. That was followed in September by Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur behind the Virgin brand, announcing that he had signed a deal with Mr. Rutan to work on plans for a fleet of five suborbital vehicles developed from Space Ship One. (48) Now, in the dying days of the year, America's Congress has passed a bill that unravels a tangle about who would be responsible for regulating the fledgling industry, and under what terms. (49) The bill also allows passengers to fly, on the understanding that this new generation of vehicles may not be as safe as taking a commercial flight between, say, New York and London. The official line from Virgin Galactica, as Sir Richard's latest venture is modestly named, is that this coming change in the law makes no practical difference to the firm's plans, since they do not intend to fly unless they can make their spacecraft as safe as a private jet. But it must surely come as some sort of relief. In any case, Will Whitehorn, director of corporate affairs at Virgin's headquarters in London, and soon to become the president of Virgin Galactica, says that work is under way on a mock-up of the interior of a new spacecraft that will hold five passengers. (50) Virgin has already committed $20m towards licensing the SpaceShipOne technology from Mr. Rutan and his financial backer Paul Allen, a software billionaire.

问答题Directions:Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyouressay,youshouldfirstdescribethedrawing,theninterpretitsmeaning,andgiveyourcommentonit.YoushouldwriteneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.(20points)

问答题Directions: A chemical plant should be responsible for the water pollution in a nearby river. Write a letter to the City Environment Protection Agency to 1) state the present situation, 2) suggest ways to deal with the problem and 3) express your sincere hope. 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.

问答题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Studythefollowingsetofpicturescarefullyandwriteanessayinwhichyoushould1)describethepicturesbriefly,2)interprettheirintendedmeanings,and3)pointouttheirimplicationsinourlife.Youshouldwriteabout160--200wordsneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.

问答题You do not need to write the address.

问答题At a time when Wall Street firms are being punished for misleading investors about dot-com stocks during the bubble, it' s all too easy to confuse financial excitement with technological reality. Many people are quick to dismiss any talk of an "Internet revolution" as so such' 90s chatter. (47) There is a world of difference between crazy evaluations and serious technology, between Internet stocks and the Net itself. While investors have been complaining about their fate, chief executives have been busy embracing the Net. It' s time to get over the bubble talk and get real about technology' s promise. Or risk falling behind. The strong upturn in profits last quarter during a period of weak economic growth is proof to the productivity—enhancing power of the Net. Through boom, bust and recovery, annual productivity growth has powered along at around 2.5%. Without it, companies would have been forced to cut payrolls even further during the worst days of the decline. With it, companies are generating higher profits without big gains in revenues. As the economy picks up steam, productivity will likely boost profits even further. Despite usual wisdom, electronic business has exceeded even the dreamy projections of 1999. Business-to-business commerce conducted online will reach $ 2.6 trillion in 2003. And many surviving dot-com companies are doing surprisingly well. (48) Some 40% of publicly held Net companies, including Amazon. com Inc. , were profitable in the fourth quarter of 2002, and half are expected to be profitable by the end of this year. True, there has been vicious disaster in the field. Venture capitalists poured $100 billion into more than 6,000 Net startups over the past decade, and 2,000 disappeared. Many ideas, some crazy and some not, failed. But eBay, Amazon. com, Yahoo!, Google, Expedia, and others are making money, thanks to a recovery in online advertising and they are changing the face of business. Just as the former IBM Chief Executive Louis V. Gerstner and others predicted, mainstream Corporate America is turning out to be the chief beneficiary of the Internet. Using it, companies are streamlining production, inventory, and sales; cutting costs; and tracking their customers. It apparently takes four to six years after first installing new systems before productivity gains are maximized. (49) Most companies are in their third or fourth year, which may explain why productivity growth has been rising consistently during the downturn, instead of dropping as it usually does in a fall. It may also mean that productivity and profits may be stronger than expected in the second half of 2003 and in 2004. The US economy has had bad luck for three years. The bubble, terrorism, corporate fraud, war, and now SARS. Yet it has weathered these mostly unexpected shocks rather well. Smart financial and economic policy has helped. (50)But the real key has been Internet technology, which provided the flexibility and productivity to adjust quickly without drastic cuts. Think what the Net will do for the economy when we get back to normal.

问答题Spain's government is now championing a cause called "right to be forgotten". (46) 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. (47) 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. (48) In fact, the phrase "right to be forgotten" is being used to cover a batch 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. (49) 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, Jesfús 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 yearold 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. (50) Experts say that Google and other search engines see some of these court cases as an assault 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. /

问答题Annual Payroll of a U.S. Ins Blank Number Wages Paid 　Manager 5 ＄100,000 　Supervisor 25 ＄350,000 　Teller 500 ＄600,000 　Total 530 ＄1,060,000

问答题 One of the strangest aspects of the mechanical approach to life is the widespread lack of concern about the danger of total destruction by nuclear weapons; a possibility people are consciously aware of. The explanation, I believe, is that they are more proud of than frightened by the gadgets of mass destruction. (46){{U}} Also they are so frightened of their personal failure and humiliation that their anxiety about personal matters prevents them from feeling anxiety about the possibility that everybody and everything maybe destroyed. {{/U}}Perhaps total destruction is even more attractive than total insecurity and never ending personal anxiety. Am I suggesting that modern man is doomed and that we should return to the pre industrial mode of production or to nineteenth century "free enterprise" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. (47) {{U}}I suggest transforming our Social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and the full development of his potentialities--those of love and of reason--are the aims of all social arrangements. {{/U}}Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man. To attain this goal we need to create a Renaissance of Enlightenment and of Humanism. It must be an Enlightenment, however, more radically realistic and critical than that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It must be a Humanism that aims at the full development of the total man, not the gadget man, not the consumer man, not the organization man. The aim of a humanist society is the man who loves life, who has faith in life, who is productive and independent. (48){{U}} Such a transformation is possible if we recognize that our present way of life makes us sterile and eventually destroys the vitality necessary for survival{{/U}}. (49) {{U}}Whether such transformation is likely is another matter. But we will not be able to succeed unless we see the alternatives clearly and realize that the choice is still 'ours{{/U}}. Dissatisfaction with our way of life is the first step toward changing it. As to these changes, one thing is certain: They must take place in all spheres simultaneously--in the economic,, the social, the political and the spiritual. (50) {{U}}Change in only one sphere will lead into blind alleys, as did the purely political French Revolution and the purely economic Russian Revolution{{/U}}.

问答题Directions:Writeanessayof160～200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawings.Inyouressay,youshould:1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)giveyourcomments.YoushouldwriteneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.

问答题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} {{I}}You are going to give a send-off speech at a farewell party given in honor of Prof. Kerry Stubbs. In your speech, you would{{/I}} 1) indicate the purpose of the party 2) acknowledge what Mr. Stubbs has done 3) invite Mr. Stubbs to speak {{I}} You should write about 100 words on Answer Sheet 2. (10 points){{/I}}

问答题Annual check-ups and company "wellness programmes" have become a familiar part of the corporate landscape. (46) Companies are now also starting to touch on a potentially troubling area: their employees mental health. Companies as diverse as BT, Rolls Royce and Grant Thornton have introduced mental health programmes ranging from training managers to spot problems to rehabilitating those suffering breakdowns. The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health estimates that a sixth of the British workforce suffers from depression or stress. That mental ill health costs British employers almost $ 26 billion a year and American research suggests that "presenteeism" costs twice as much as absenteeism. Recently Grant Thornton sends its managers on a two day program put on by Positive Health Strategies, a London company. (47) Its program screens people for psychological well being, and offers advice on " optimizing performance" and " staying. positive under pressure". Focusing on the upper ranks makes sense for companies. The stars not only represent huge profits. They are also most likely to live under stress while maintaining a stiff upper lip. But focusing on stars also makes sense for the mental wellness movement itself: the best way to insert yourself into a company"s DNA is to seduce its leadership. (48) What should one make of the corporate world"s new found interest in promoting mental health? For sure, depression and anxiety can take a serious toll on productivity, and companies bear their share of the blame for promoting stress in the first place. And catching psychological problems early can prevent them from escalating. This all sounds promising. But there are nevertheless several troubling aspects. The first worry is that promoting psychological wellness crosses an important line between the public and the private, raising awkward questions. Should companies pry into people"s emotional lives? Can they be trusted with the information they gather? And should psychologically frail workers put their faith in people who work primarily for their employers rather than in their personal doctors? Workers rightly worry that companies will use psychological information in their annual appraisals. (49) And that bosses will see the trend as an excuse for extending their power over staff—using the veiled threat of somehow being classified as mentally impaired to make them obey, and conform . A second worry is about the scientific foundations of the mental wellness movement. A phrase like "mental fitness" is bound to attract chalants and salesmen. Warren Bennis of the University of Southern California has noted that the new "science" of neuroleadership is "filled with banalities". Other people are less complimentary. The biggest problem with the movement lies in the assumption that promoting psychological wellness is as good as encouraging the physical sort. (50) Few would doubt that good physical health makes for good productivity; but it is not self-evident that a positive mental attitude is good for a worker or his output: history shows that misfits have contributed far more to creativity than perky optimists. Besides, curmudgeonliness is arguably a rational way to cope with an imperfect world, rather than a sign of mental maladjustment. Companies that chase the elusive "positive attitudes" may end up damaging themselves as well as sticking their noses where they have no business.

问答题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Therehasbeenadiscussionrecentlyontheissueofcommunicationinanewspaper.Writeanessayofabout200wordstothenewspaperto1.showyourunderstandingofthesymbolicmeaningofthepicturebelow1)thecontentofthepicture2)thesymbolicmeaning3)thespecialunderstanding2.giveaspecificexample/comment,and3.giveyoursuggestionastothebestwaytocommunicate.

问答题Eric Hansen writes about travel as a participating enthusiast rather than a mere observer. (46)It gives these nine essays, based on his adventures over the past quarter- century, a resonance and psychological depth not usually seen in more routine travel narratives. (47) The reader follows wide-eyed from the armchair as Mr Hansen journeys from the French Riviera to the South Pacific, India, the United States and Borneo. Each story combines nuanced portraits of memorable characters with lyrical descriptions of human fallibility and generosity. In his wildest tale, Mr Hansen recounts his time working at a hotel on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. (48)"Seldom," he writes, "does one have the chance to enjoy the company of people who have so completely given themselves over to the cultivation of the low life in such style and with such gusto." (49) Beyond the booze, broken glass and fist fights, the author learns the history of the island's pearl divers who, in canvas suits and lead weighted shoes, snatch gold-lip pearl shells from a seabed teeming with sea snakes, giant groupers and saltwater crocodiles. Other stories tell of drinking hallucinogenic kava in Vanuatu; lingering on a beach with a beautiful Maldivian girl in a pleasurable pursuit that the locals call "night fishing"; cooking piroshki with a Moscow emigre in a tiny manhattan apartment while drug dealers shoot each other in the lobby below; and watching the Indonesian crew of a becalmed tall ship dance on deck to country and western music. (50)The most moving story comes from Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), where the author's frustration at the impenetrable bureaucracy when trying to ship his belongings home is put into perspective by his voluntary work at Mother Theresa's home for the dying. Here he bathes, feeds and comforts the inhabitants of the men's ward, where the panic and despair of death are replaced by dignity and humour. This sensitive portrait alone makes this heartfelt collection a magical and uplifting read.

问答题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}{{I}}Writeanessayof160～200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawings.Inyouressay,youshould:{{/I}}1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)giveyourcomments.YoushouldwriteneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.

问答题International investors seem incapable of ending their love affair with the dollar. America's economy has slowed sharply this year, yet its currency has risen to a 15 year high in trade weighted terms. (46) Against the euro the dollar touched $ 0.88 — 8% higher than in early January and close to the level at which the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve jointly intervened to prop up the European currency last September. Why is the euro looking sickly? There are plenty of theories. One is that the markets do not trust the ECB: (47) the euro area economies are not immune to America's downturn, yet the central bank still seems more concerned with fighting inflation than with supporting growth; another more plausible explanation is that, in an uncertain global economic climate, the dollar has resumed its traditional role as a safe-haven currency. Most economists reckon that the euro is undervalued and expect a rebound over the next year. One of the most optimistic is Goldman Sachs, which is predicting a rate of $1.22 in 12 months. But an analysis by David Owen, an economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, gives pause for thought. (48) He has found that, over the past decade, movements in the real exchange rate of the euro against the dollar have closely reflected the difference between productivity growth in the euro area and in America. When productivity growth in America has been faster than in Europe—as it was in most of the late 1990s—the euro falls, and vice versa. This is exactly what economic theory would predict: countries with faster productivity growth in the traded goods sector should see rising real exchange rates. Mr. Owen uses monthly data for productivity growth in manufacturing, a good proxy for the traded goods sector. Using annual productivity data for the whole economy (which are available over a longer period), the broad relationship between the exchange rate and relative productivity growth in America and Europe seems to have persisted for most of the past 30 years. Mr. Owen reckons that, in the short term, America's downturn will reduce the productivity gap between America and the euro area, and so boost the euro. (49) But in the long term, he expects productivity growth to remain faster in America—in which case, a sustained rise in the euro is unlikely over the next few years. Only if the downturn completely kills the belief in America's new paradigm, and its productivity growth plummets, will the euro be able to rebound more permanently. The strength of the dollar this year does indeed seem to hinge on a belief among investors that America's slowdown will be brief, and that in the longer run America remains the best place in which to invest. (50) But they may be underestimating the potential for productivity gains in Europe, as the single currency boosts competition and encourages firms to exploit economies of scale through mergers and acquisitions. The adoption of more flexible working practices in many countries should also help to improve productivity. Studies in America suggest that the bulk of its productivity gains from information technology come from the use of it rather than from its production. So the euro area, too, should start to enjoy productivity gains over the next decade, as it makes fuller use of it. If you believe that Europe really is starting to change, buy Euros. If not, stick with the darling dollar.