Throughout the whole period of one's lifetime, the achieving of happiness can be seen as our【C1】______and everlasting goal. Happiness is far more than a strong body, a【C2】______villa or an around-the-world tour; it is something we need from our heart. However, we can investigate happiness【C3】______scientific methods. When we are asked the question "Where can we find happiness" , it is a【C4】______difficult to answer accurately. We can find happiness right in our own home, in our workplace, in school, in the【C5】______of our friends, etc. It is up to us to find the ways and means to achieve that happiness each of us seek and【C6】______for. However, it is essential to【C7】______that there is no one absolute way to achieve happiness. People may have different ideas with【C8】______to the ways of achieving happiness. The following five【C9】______are【C10】______by many people as sources of happiness: family and friends, wealth, position, educational achievement and fame. To give it a comprehensive【C11】______, happiness is a【C12】______state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions【C13】______from contentment to intense joy. A【C14】______of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and【C15】______its sources. Various research groups, including positive psychology, endeavor to【C16】______the scientific method to answer questions about what "happiness" is, and how we might【C17】______it. There are many ways to be happy. Spend time with individuals who are dear to you. There is nothing more【C18】______than to be with the people you love. Do something nice for others. Helping others is a very honorable way to find happiness. If your schedule is too【C19】______for volunteer work, you can just donate a small sum of money or some old clothes or toys to charily. When you eat out, try to be a good【C20】______to the waiters or the valet who safely parked your car. All these simple things will not only make you happy, but other people as well.
BSection III Writing/B
The world is on the top of a staggering rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before.【C1】______the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600m to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when longer life【C2】______more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth and【C3】______, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will smash government【C4】______. But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the【C5】______old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people,【C6】______older skilled folk are working longer. The【C7】______is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers are【C8】______retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce. Policy is【C9】______responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Longer life, combined with the replacement of generous pension plans【C10】______meaner ones, means that even the better-off must work longer to have a【C11】______retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to【C12】______rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than their【C13】______. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that【C14】______computers, from management expertise to creativity, do not necessarily【C15】______with age. This trend will benefit not just【C16】______elderly people but also, in some ways, society as a whole. Growth will slow less dramatically than expected; government revenues will be in better【C17】______, as high earners pay taxes for longer. At the other end of the social scale, however, things look【C18】______. Manual work gets harder as people get older. The rapid innovation has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while【C19】______those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals and society, are【C20】______.
Your delegation has just returned from a visit to a university in the US. And you were warmly treated there by the Headmaster Dickens. Please write a letter to express your thanks to him for his hospitality and hope for further cooperation. You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not sign your name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address. (10 points)
People have been holding heated discussions recently about women's experience in the workplace. Last month Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Face-book, published "Lean In", a【C1】______declaration on why women have not【C2】______to the most senior positions at companies. She concludes that it is partly women's own【C3】______: they do not "lean in" and ask for promotions,【C4】______at meetings and insist on taking a seat at the table. Another new book will not have the same impact as "Lean In", but it offers some interesting new【C5】______on how women are coping at work, and what is holding them【C6】______. Some of it is down to simple miscommunication. Barbara Annis and John Gray argue in "Work With Me" that men and women are biologically wired to think and react【C7】______to situations, and have "gender blind spots" when it comes to understanding their co-workers' behavior. Ms Annis, who leads workshops on gender for big companies and governments, and Mr. Gray, author of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", have【C8】______to produce an easy-to-read guide to work place communications. Women ask more questions,【C9】______more people's opinions and seek collaboration with coworkers more frequently than men. Men view these preferences as【C10】______of weakness, and women, in turn, grow【C11】______by how competitively men work, and how quickly they arrive【C12】______conclusions by themselves. 【C13】______both female and male employees became more "gender【C14】______" about how their work and behavioral preferences are hard-wired, it would contribute to a more harmonious workforce. Women have been choosing to leave companies at twice the【C15】______of men, and more than half the women whom the authors met in workshops were considering leaving their【C16】______. Women often tell their bosses that they are【C17】______for personal reasons, but the majority actually leave because they feel【C18】______teams and not valued for their contributions. Yet the【C19】______is that women often have trouble communicating with other women at work as well,【C20】______the authors do not explain in quite as much detail why this is so.
Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthechart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.
What would make a smoker more likely to quit, a big reward for succeeding or a little penalty for failing? That is what researchers wanted to know when they assigned a large group of CVS employees (CVS Caremark is the country's largest drugstore chain by sales), their relatives and friends to different smoking cessation programs. "Adding a bit of a stick was much better than a pure carrot. These large employers are spending an average of $800 to $900 per employee per year, but in ways that are often blind to normal human psychology" said Dr. Scott Halpern, who led the study. The trial was intended to change that. Researchers randomly assigned the participants to a number of program options and let them decide whether they wanted to participate. The penalty program required participants to deposit $150; six months later, those who had quit smoking would get the deposit back, along with a $650 reward. In the reward-only program, participants were simply offered an $800 payment if they stayed off cigarettes for six months. The trial, which was described in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, was the largest yet to test whether offering people financial incentives could lead to better health. Researchers found that offering incentives was far more effective in getting people to stop smoking than the traditional approach of giving free smoking cessation help, such as counseling or nicotine replacement therapy like gum, medication or patches. But they also found that requiring a $150 deposit that would be lost if the person failed to stay off cigarettes for six months nearly doubled the chances of success. "This is an original set of findings," said Cass R. Sunstein, a Harvard law professor who helped develop some influential ideas in the field of behavioral economics, notably that if the social environment can be changed—for example, by posting simple warnings—people can be nudged into better behavior. "They could be applied to many health issues, like alcoholism, or whenever people face serious self-control problems." Over all, success eluded most of the study participants. More than 80 percent of smokers in the most popular pure rewards group were still smoking at the end of the study. Even so, researchers say, their success rate was far greater than for those who got the traditional treatment. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death in the United States. Diseases linked to it kill more than 480,000 Americans a year. And even a small decline could have a big health effect.
Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthedrawing.Inyourwriting,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.
Read the following text and answer the questions by choosing the most suitable subtitle from the list A-G for each numbered paragraph(41-45). There are two extra subtitles which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points) [A]Leave them behind [B]Change the subject [C]Limit the time you spend with them [D]Don't make their problems your problems [E]Don' t pretend that their behavior is "OK". [F]Talk about solutions, not problems [G]Speak up for yourself Some people will have a rain cloud hanging over them, no matter what the weather is outside. Their negative attitude is toxic to your own moods, and you probably feel like there is little you can do about it. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. If you want to effectively deal with negative people and be a champion of positivity, then your best route is to take definite action through some of the steps below. 【R1】______ First, let' s get this out of the way. You can be more positive than a cartoon sponge, but even your enthusiasm has a chance of being afflicted by the constant negativity of a friend. In fact, negativity has been proven to damage your health physically, making you vulnerable to high levels of stress and even cardiac disease. There's no reason to get hurt because of someone else's bad mood. Though this may be a little tricky depending on your situation, working to spend slightly less time around negative people will keep your own spirits from slipping as well. 【R2】______ This is an easy trap to fall into. Point out to the person that their constant negativity isn' t a good thing. We don't want to do this because it's far easier to let someone sit in their woes, and we'd rather just stay out of it. But if you want the best for this person, avoid giving the false impression that their negativity is normal. 【R3】______ Though I consider empathy a gift, it can be a dangerous thing. When we hear the complaints of a friend or family member, we typically start to take on their burdens with them. This is a bad habit to get into, especially if this is a person who is almost exclusively negative. These types of people are prone to embellishing and altering a story in order to gain sympathy. Why else would they be sharing this with you? 【R4】______ When you suspect that a conversation is starting to take a turn for the negative, be a champion of positivity by changing the subject. Of course, you have to do this without ignoring what the other person said. Acknowledge their comment, but move the conversation forward before the pleasure gained from complaining takes hold of either of you. 【R5】______ Sometimes, changing the subject isn't an option if you want to deal with negative people, but that doesn' t mean you can' t still be positive. I know that when someone begins dumping complaints on me, I have a hard time knowing exactly what to say. The key is to measure your responses as solution-based. You can do this by asking questions like, "Well, how could this be resolved?" or, "How do you think they feel about it?" Use discernment to find an appropriate response that will help your friend manage their perspectives.
College students are more stressed out than ever before—at least according to the latest findings of a large, national survey that has been conducted annually for the last 25 years. The survey includes more than 200,000 students【C1】______nearly 300 colleges and asks them to【C2】______how their own mental health【C3】______their classmates" —for example, is it "above average" or in the "highest 10%"? This【C4】______unusual methodology typically results in the statistical Lake Woebegon effect in which most people【C5】______to overestimate themselves in relation to others (it refers to the fictional Lake Woebegon, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average").【C6】______the most recent results indicate that fewer and fewer freshmen feel like they are in top form in terms of【C7】______stress. So what"s going on? Obviously, the economy and high unemployment might【C8】______the increase in stress. A much more precise large study recently found that empathy【C9】______college students had declined 40% since 2000—and since caring relationships are【C10】______to mental (and physical) health, a decline in empathy could also produce a decline in mental health and coping. My final point brings us back to my earlier post on a Stanford study that looked at the psychological【C11】______of comparing ourselves to others. It found that the way people are incline to【C12】______their negative emotions while broadcasting their happy ones makes the rest of us feel somehow "less than"—【C13】______all our friends and neighbors have better lives than we【C14】______ This【C15】______, too, might tie into why the new survey, "The American Freshman: National Norms, Fall 2011," found that students are feeling less【C16】______about their level of emotional and mental stability. If all the students around you are desperately trying to【C17】______a happy face—and you【C18】______that face as a true reflection of their【C19】______selves, even as you work to hide your own【C20】______—well, it"s not surprising that so many students might be getting a bit strained.
Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthepiechart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.
If I ask you what constitutes "bad" eating, the kind that leads to obesity and a variety of connected diseases, you're likely to answer, "Salt, fat and sugar." Yet that' s not a(n) 【C1】______answer. We don't know everything about the dietary 【C2】______ to chronic disease, but the best-qualified people argue that real food is more likely to promote health and less likely to cause disease than hyper-processed food. And we can further【C3】______that message: Minimally processed food—Real Food— should 【C4】______ our diets. Real food solves the salt / fat / sugar problem. Yes, excess salt may cause high blood pressure, and 【C5】______ sodium intake in people with high blood pressure helps.【C6】______salt is only one of several risk factors in developing high blood pressure, and those who eat a diverse diet and few processed foods need not【C7】______about salt intake. "Fat" is a complicated topic. Most naturally occurring fats are probably essential, but too much of some fats seems【C8】______. Eat real food【C9】______your fat intake will probably be fine. "Sugar" has come to 【C10】______the entire group of processed, nutritionally worthless caloric sweeteners. All appear to be damaging because they're added sugars, as 【C11】______to naturally occurring ones.【C12】______: Sugar is not the only enemy. The enemy is hyper-processed food,【C13】______sugar. We know that eating real food is a general solution, but a large part of our dietary problems might【C14】______from the consumption of caloric sweeteners and / or hyper-processed carbohydrate. For example, how to limit the intake of sugar? A soda tax is a(n)【C15】______, proper labeling would be helpful, and—quite possibly most important,【C16】______it' s going to take us a generation or two to get out of this mess—restrictions【C17】______marketing sweet "food" to children. There's no reason to 【C18】______ action on those kinds of moves. But let's get the science straight so that firm,【C19】______, sound recommendations can be made【C20】______the best possible evidence. And meanwhile, let's also get the simple message straight: It's "Eat Real Food."
It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fatherly) wisdom — or at least confirm that he's the kid's dad. All he needs to do is to shell out $30 for paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore — and another $120 to get the results. More than 60 000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first become available without prescriptions last year, according to Doug Fogg, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over-the-counter(无需处方的) kits. More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests directly to the public, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2 500. Among the most popular; paternity and kinship(亲属关系) testing, which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and families can use to track down kids put up for adoption. DNA testing is also the latest rage among passionate genealogists (系谱学者)— and supports businesses that offer to search for a family's geographic roots. Most tests require collecting cells by swabbing saliva (唾液) in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing. All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA. But some observers are skeptical. "There's a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing," says Troy Duster, a New York University sociologist. He notes that each individual has many ancestors — numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries back. Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome(染色体) inherited through men in a father's line or mitochondrial(线粒体的) DNA, which is passed down only from mothers. This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for example, just three generations back people also have six other great-grandparents or, four generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents. Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections to which a sample is compared. Databases used by some companies don't rely on data collected systematically but rather lump together information from different research projects. This means that a DNA database may have a lot of data from some regions and not others, so a person's test results may differ depending on the company that processes the results. In addition, the computer programs a company uses to estimate relationships may be patented and not subject to peer review or outside evaluation.
BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B
As the country with the European Union's fastest ageing population, Germany has repeatedly adjusted its pension system to avert a slow-motion demographic disaster. The biggest reform came during Angela Merkel's first term as chancellor. Then, as now, Christian Democrats were yoked with Social Democrats in a "grand coalition". In 2007 the coalition decided that the normal retirement age should gradually rise from 65 to 67. Mrs Merkel has since preached similar demographic and economic wisdom to most of her EU partners, criticizing France in particular for straying off the right path. So it comes as something of a shock that Mrs Merkel, now in her third term and running another grand coalition, is reversing course. On the campaign trail for last September's election, she promised to raise pensions for older mothers. The Social Democrats countered with promises to let certain workers retire at 63 instead of 65. As coalition partners, they will do both at once. It falls to Andrea Nahles, the labour minister and a Social Democrat who likes to wave the banner of "social justice" , to push the pension package through parliament by the summer so that it can take effect on July 1st. A previous reform let women with children born after 1992 treat three of their stay-at-home maternity years if they had worked and paid full pension contributions. The new "mother pension" will be for the 8m-9m women who took time off for children before 1992. They will be allowed to count two of those years, instead of just one, as working years for pension purposes. The second part of Mrs Nahles's reforms, retirement at 63, is aimed at people who have contributed to the pension system for at least 45 years. But Mrs Nahles wants to count not only years spent working or caring for children or other family members but also periods of short-term unemployment. Separately, she will also boost the pensions of people who cannot work due to disability, and spend more money to help them to recover. Individually, these proposals may seem noble-minded. But as a package, the plan is "shortsighted and one-sided," thinks Axel Bersch-Supan, a pension adviser at the Munich Centre for the Economics of Ageing. It benefits the older generation, which is already well looked after, at the expense of younger people who will have to pay higher contributions or taxes. "The financial and psychological costs of the pension at 63 are disastrous," Mr Bersch-Supan says. There will no longer be any incentive to keep working longer. In some cases, people may, in effect, retire at 61, register as unemployed for two years, and then draw their full pensions.
Readingthefollowingtextandmatcheachofthenumbereditemsintheleftcolumntoitscorrespondinginformationintherightcolumn.Therearetwoextrachoicesintherightcolumn.MarkyouranswersontheANSWERSHEET.(10points)Thetypicalpictureofacorporatehighflierissomeonewhosurvivesonverylittlesleep.Heorsheriseswhenitisstilldark,workslateandisstillansweringemailsattwoo'clockinthemorning.Suchpeopledoexist,ofcourse.ThelateBritishPrimeMinisterMargaretThatcher,forexample,wasfamousforoperatingonafewhours'sleep.SomeentrepreneursandWallStreettradersseemtofollowsuit.Butifyouthinkyouneedtodothesamethingtogetahead,thinkagain.Agrowingbodyofresearchisfindingthat,onthecontrary,thosewhogetagoodnight'ssleepareusuallymoreproductiveatwork.That'sbecausesleepdoesn'tjustrestthebrain,saymedicalspecialists.Itallowsthebraintoperformvitalmaintenanceandrestorationtasks.Brainsthatgettoolittlesleepsimplycannotperformaswellasthosethatarerested."There'snodoubtthatsleepdeprivationaffectsjobperformance,"saystheDetroitMedicalCenter'sSafwanBadr."Theevidenceiscompellingthatwhenyoudonotgetenoughsleep...youarenotasproductive."Investorsshouldalsotakeheed:Numerousstudieshavefoundthatthoserunningontoolittlesleeptendtomakepoorerinvestmentdecisionsandtakeneedlessrisksaswell.CharlesCzeisler,asleepspecialistatBrighamyou'llseesimilareffectsifyousimplysleeptoolittleeachnightovertime.Forthefirsttime,newresearchhasattemptedtoputsomenumbersonthelinkbetweenmoreZzzsandmoreBenjamins.MatthewGibson,graduateresearcherintheeconomicsdepartmentoftheUniversityofCalifornia,SanDiego,comparedwagedatawithsleeptimesrecordedintheU.S.CensusBureau'sAmericanTimeUseSurvey.Hisconclusion:Forthosewhoaresleepingtoolittle,"aonehourincreaseinlongrunaveragesleepincreaseswagesby16%,equivalenttomorethanayearofschooling."Adultsneedeighthoursofsleeponaverage,expertssay.Thereissomevariationbetweenindividuals.Butwhenwearetired,wefinditmuchhardertothinkinnovativelyandtomakecreativeleaps,sayresearchers.Wefindithardertoadaptourthinkingtonewinformationortolearnnewlessons.Consider:AtEngland'sLoughboroughUniversityin1999,researchersYvonneHarrisontestedtheeffectsofsleepdeprivationonasmallgroupofhealthyyoungparticipants.Theyweregivencomplexbusiness-situationtasksintheformofagame,aswellassomecriticalreadingtasks.Thosewhowentshortonsleepwereabletokeepupwiththereading,theyfound.Butwhenitcametothecomplexgame,"theirplaycollapsed,"theyReported.
Suppose your friend Barbara is graduating from Yale University. Write her an email to 1) congratulate her, and 2) wish her good luck during her new career. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.
BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B
Suppose the students in your university have donated some money and clothes to the earthquake-stricken area in Sichuan. As the chairman of the Student Union, write a letter to the Red Cross to 1) donate these donations, and 2) express your best wishes to the people in the earthquake-stricken area. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "The Student Union" instead. Do not write your address.
Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthechart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.