Exercise has innumerable health benefits, but losing weight may not be among them. A provocative new study shows that a substantial number of people who take up an exercise regimen wind up heavier afterward than they were at the start, with the weight gain due mostly to extra fat, not muscle. But the study also finds, for the first time, that one simple strategy may improve people' s odds of actually dropping pounds with exercise. As we all know, the fundamentals of weight loss should be simple. Burn more calories on any given day than you consume and, over time, you will lose weight. Theoretically, we can achieve that desirable condition by reducing the number of calories that we take in through dieting or by increasing the number of calories that we consume through exercise. But in reality, most people do not achieve or sustain weight loss, no matter what method they try.

What are the roads not taken because students must take out loans for college? For one thing, it appears that people with student loans are less likely to start businesses of their own. A new study has found that areas with higher relative growth in student debt show lower growth in the formation of small businesses. The correlation makes sense. People normally have only a certain amount of "debt capacity". When students use up their "debt capacity" on student loans, they can't commit it elsewhere. Given the importance of an entrepreneur's personal debt capacity in financing a start-up business, student loan debt, which cannot be discharged via bankruptcy, can have lasting effects later in life and may impact the ability of future small-business owners to raise capital. Considering that 60 percent of jobs are created by small business, "if you shut down the ability to create new businesses, you're going to harm the economy," said Brent Ambrose, a professor of risk management at Pennsylvania State University. Student loan debt also appears to be affecting homeownership trends. According to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, fewer 30-year-olds in general have bought homes since the recession, but the decline has been steeper for people with a history of student loan debt and has continued even as the housing market has recovered. Student loan debt may also affect career choices. Having a college loan appears to reduce the likelihood that people will choose a low-paying public-interest job, according to a 2011 study by Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley, and Cecilia Elena Rouse of Princeton. They arrived at their conclusion by studying a well-off university that began meeting students' financial needs through a combination of work-study money and grants, and dispensing with loans altogether. Before the new policy started in the early 2000s, students were more likely to choose well-paid professions like investment banking and consulting. After the policy took effect, more students chose jobs in areas like teaching and the nonprofit sector. In many cases, the choices that student borrowers make are just common sense, based on the financial realities they face. If society wants to change the skewing effect of student loans, some tough decisions about allocating educational resources may well lie ahead.

In this section, you are asked to write an essay based on the following information. Make comments and express your own opinion. You should write at least 150 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. 以往很多人报考成人高校，是为了圆文凭梦，如今，手持本科、硕士文凭，回头重新考大学的大有人在。据报道，今年报名全国成人高考的上海考生中，有390名本科毕业生，15名硕士生。 写一篇至少150字左右的作文对此现象进行评论并表达自己的意见。

BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B

Thesymmetryiselegant:almostabillionpeopleintheworldlackaccesstocleanwater,whilethesocialmediasitesFacebookandTwitterhaveroughlythesamenumberofusers.MarryingthetwoisWaterForward,asitelaunchedlastyearthataimstoraisemoneyfor-drinkingwaterinpoorcountries.Designedasanonlinephotoalbum,usersbuyspaceforfriendsat$10perportrait.Thefundsgotoanorganisationcalledcharity:water,whichhassince2006collectedover$40m,muchofitonline.Othercharitiesareeagertoexploitthefund-raisingpotentialofsocialmedia.Nineoutoftennon-profitsinAmericahaveapresenceonFacebookaccordingtothelatestNonprofitSocialNetworkBenchmark(NSNB)report,asurveyofnearly11,200non-profitprofessionals.TheInternetaboundswithsocial-networkingtoolsraisingmoneyforgoodworks,suchasCauses(anapplicationonFacebook),CrowdriseandNetworkforGood.Thesesitesandplatformsletusersconnectwithcharitiesandeachother,planevents,donatedirectlyorcreateprojectstofund-raiseamongfriends.OnCauses,forexample,participantscanuseabirthdaytorallyfriendstogivetoaparticularcharity.Butsocialmediaarenogoldminefordo-gooders.Fewerthanhalfthenon-profitssurveyedintheNSNBreportgotmorethan$10,000ayearfromFacebook,andonly0.4%reportedraising$100,000ormore.AsurveybyBlackbaud,asoftwareandserviceproviderforcharities,predictsariseindonationsin2012,butnosignificantgainsfromsocialmedia.Traditionalfund-raising,usingdirectmailandevents,isfarmoreeffectivethannewermethods,suchase-mailandsocialnetworking.Thecharitiesthatraisealotfromsocialmediavarywidelyinsizeandbudgets.ButeachhasanaverageFacebookfollowingofnearly100,000,morethan15timesthenorm,accordingtotheNSNBreport.Theyalsonowdedicatelotsofstafftimetosocialmediaandhavecarefullyfollowedthesuccessoftheirfund-raising.AllisonFine,co-authorofabookcalledTheNetworkedNonprofit,arguesthatsocialmediaofferahandy,low-costwaytobuildanetworkofsupporterswhoshareideasandinformation.Butdonationscomeonlywhenthebondsarestrongandthenetworkisbig.Themostsuccessfulcharitiestendtoshowdonorswhattheirfundingwillachieve.Charity:watercountsthenumberofwellsdugandrainwatercatchmentsbuilt.DonorsChoose,anotheronlinecharity,hasraisedmorethan$101mbylettingpeoplefundprojectsatAmericanpublicschools."Alotofcharitiesmayfeellikeit'sslowgoing,"saysKatieBisbeeofDonorsChoose.Sheaddsthatfanpagesaregoodforrelationships,butforfund-raisingthemostprofitabletoolistogetdonorstosharenewsoftheirdonationontheirownFacebookpage.Throughthesocialnetwork,DonorsChooseraised$2minthe2010-2011schoolyear.Thisbeliesthechargethatnetworkeddo-goodersare"slacktivists".SotoodoesastudyfromGeorgetownUniversityandOgilvyPR,apublic-relationsfirm,whichfindsthatAmericanswhobackcausesthroughsocialmediaareoftenactiveinotherwaystoo.Soacampaignthatdoesnotraisemoneyatfirstmaystillluresupportersandpotentialfuturedonors.

The typical picture of a corporate highflier is someone who survives on very little sleep. He or she rises when it is still dark, works late and is still answering emails at two o' clock in the morning. Such people do exist, of course. The late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for example, was famous for operating on a few hours' sleep. Some entrepreneurs and Wall Street traders seem to follow suit. But if you think you need to do the same thing to get ahead, think again. A growing body of research is finding that, on the contrary, those who get a good night's sleep are usually more productive at work. That's because sleep doesn't just rest the brain, say medical specialists. It allows the brain to perform vital maintenance and restoration tasks. Brains that get too little sleep simply cannot perform as well as those that are rested. "There's no doubt that sleep deprivation affects job performance," says the Detroit Medical Center's Safwan Badr. "The evidence is compelling that when you do not get enough sleep ... you are not as productive." Investors should also take heed: Numerous studies have found that those running on too little sleep tend to make poorer investment decisions and take needless risks as well. Charles Czeisler, a sleep specialist at Brigham you'll see similar effects if you simply sleep too little each night over time. For the first time, new research has attempted to put some numbers on the link between more Zzzs and more Benjamins. Matthew Gibson, graduate researcher in the economics department of the University of California, San Diego, compared wage data with sleep times recorded in the U.S. Census Bureau's American Time Use Survey. His conclusion: For those who are sleeping too little, "a onehour increase in longrun average sleep increases wages by 16%, equivalent to more than a year of schooling." Adults need eight hours of sleep on average, experts say. There is some variation between individuals. But when we are tired, we find it much harder to think innovatively and to make creative leaps, say researchers. We find it harder to adapt our thinking to new information or to learn new lessons. Consider: At England's Loughborough University in 1999, researchers Yvonne Harrison tested the effects of sleep deprivation on a small group of healthy young participants. They were given complex business-situation tasks in the form of a game, as well as some critical reading tasks. Those who went short on sleep were able to keep up with the reading, they found. But when it came to the complex game, "their play collapsed," they Reported.[A] agrees that sleep deprivation brings bad effects to investment.[B] holds that adults need an average of 8 hours' sleep.[C] believes that lack of sleep diminishes your performance.[D] thinks it is difficult for people lacking sleep to take up creative work.[E] points out the relation between sleep time and American dollars.[F] is well known for very little sleep.[G] maintains that sleep can rest the brain, and let the brain do other important tasks.

The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was supposed to transform American health insurance. Critics have long feared that it would do much more. Republicans have cast Obamacare as a job-killing, economy-crushing villain. On February 4th they appeared to get more ammunition from the Congressional Budget Office(CBO). The CBO, as part of its projection of economic growth over the next decade, estimates that Obamacare will lower full-time employment by 2. 3m in 2021, compared with what might have been without reform, and by 2. 5m in 2025. The main reason is not that firms are already slashing jobs to avoid the burden the law imposes, as Republicans have complained, but that Americans will choose to work less. The insight that Obamacare would lower the supply of labour is not new, but the magnitude of the CBO"s estimate is—the 2. 3m drop in 2021 is nearly three times larger than the CBO"s earlier projection. Many factors account for the decline. Chief among them is the effect of subsidies for health insurance. To help Americans buy coverage on new health "exchanges" , Obamacare offers tax credits to those earning between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty line(about $ 11,500 to $ 46,000 for a single adult). Those tax credits are offered on a sliding scale, by income, so workers in effect pay a higher tax rate as their wages rise. This may dissuade them from trying to earn more. The White House, mining the report for good news, argued that Obamacare liberates American workers. "At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams," the White House press secretary said in a statement. "This CBO report bears that out. " The supply-side effects are not all bad. Some Americans, no longer tied to their employer-provided insurance, may feel freer to take better jobs or start their own businesses. But this effect is unlikely to offset the ranks of people who choose to work less, or not at all. And although leisure is often agreeable, does America really want to encourage its citizens to put their feet up?

Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you're not an investor in one of those hedge funds(对冲基金) that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to a 26-year low against the pound, already-expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $ 8. The once all-powerful dollar isn't doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar. The weak dollar is a source of humiliation (屈辱) , for a nation's self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It's also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S. economy — from giant companies like Coca-Cola to mom-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami — for which the weak dollar is most excellent news. Many Europeans may view the U. S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak. Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico — as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals can't afford to join the merrymaking. The money tourists spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So do exports, which, thanks in part to the weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006 and May 2007. For first five months of 2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent from 2006. If you own shares in large American corporations, you're a winner in the weak-dollar gamble. Last week Coca-Cola's stock bubbled to a five-year high after it reported a fantastic quarter. Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent of Coke's beverage(饮料) business. Other American companies profiting from this trend include McDonald's and IBM. American tourists, however, shouldn't expect any relief soon. The dollar lost strength the way many marriages break up — slowly, and then all at once. And currencies don't turn on a dime. So if you want to avoid the pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic dollar, cancel that summer vacation to England and look to New England. There, the dollar is still treated with a little respect.

On behalf of the department manager, write an email to a new staff Mary to 1)welcome her, and 2) inform her about the detail. You should write about 100 words neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not sign your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.

Writeanessaybasedonthechartbelow.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsneatlyontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)

Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart,inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)

Bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles in public. Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else; the accounting standard-setters. Their rules, moan the banks, have forced them to report enormous losses, and it's just not fair. These rules say they must value some assets at the price a third party would pay, not the price managers and regulators would like them to fetch. Unfortunately, banks' lobbying now seems to be working. The details may be unknowable, but the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised. And, unless banks carry toxic assets at prices that attract buyers, reviving the banking system will be difficult. After a bruising encounter with Congress, America's Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rushed through rule changes. These gave banks more freedom to use models to value illiquid assets and more flexibility in recognizing losses on long-term assets in their income statement. Bob Herz, the FASB's chairman, cried out against those who "question our motives. "Yet bank shares rose and the changes enhance what one lobby group politely calls "the use of judgment by management. " European ministers instantly demanded that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) do likewise. The IASB says it does not want to act without overall planning, but the pressure to fold when it completes it reconstruction of rules later this year is strong. Charlie McCreevy, a European commissioner, warned the IASB that it did "not live in a political vacuum" but "in the real word" and that Europe could yet develop different rules. It was banks that were on the wrong planet, with accounts that vastly overvalued assets. Today they argue that market prices overstate losses, because they largely reflect the temporary illiquidity of markets, not the likely extent of bad debts. The truth will not be known for years. But bank's shares trade below their book value, suggesting that investors are skeptical. And dead markets partly reflect the paralysis of banks which will not sell assets for fear of booking losses, yet are reluctant to buy all those supposed bargains. To get the system working again, losses must be recognized and dealt with. America's new plan to buy up toxic assets will not work unless banks mark assets to levels which buyers find attractive. Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters. The FASB and IASB have been exactly that, cleaning up rules on stock options and pensions, for example, against hostility from special interests. But by giving in to critics now they are inviting pressure to make more concessions.

Children need exercise. Parents often worry that 【C1】______time for athletics or even for just playing on the Jungle Jim is going to take away from their kids" 【C2】______achievement. But actually, the【C3】______is true. There have been analyses of huge numbers of studies that all show that kids who are【C4】______are better in school, get better grades, and have higher【C5】______scores than kids who lack of exercise. And that is probably because【C6】______the lifespan, even into old age, there"s a strong correlation between a healthy heart and a healthy brain. The brain is the most【C7】______organ that your circulatory system has to【C8】______. It takes up a lot of the body"s oxygen and a lot of the body"s【C9】______. And unlike most of your【C10】______your brain can"t live very long【C11】______that blood supply. You cut blood supply off for about five minutes and parts of the brain start dying. So blocked arteries and little clots that cut off blood flow to the brain in older people are a【C12】______source of cognitive difficulty and cognitive deterioration with age. And even in little kids, being physically fit clearly【C13】______intellectual performance. The other thing parents should be thinking about is that in childhood your kid needs about 90 minutes a day of active【C14】______, and parents should really【C15】______, I think, on making sure that that"s fun, first of all. You don"t want to【C16】______exercise as punishment. And you also, I think, want to have them doing something that could potentially continue into adulthood.【C17】______much your kids like climbing trees, they"re not going to be doing that when they"re 40, not most of us anyway. And【C18】______you give them a sport or a taste for hiking or a taste for yoga, something that grownups do, you【C19】______reduce the chance that they"re going to be one of the large numbers of people who are active children who grow into inactive adults. Usually that【C20】______happens around the age of 13 or so.

Directions: Our society is full of competition, which is inevitable. Generally speaking, competition contributes to progress in society. In this section, you are asked to write an essay on the importance of competition. You can provide specific reasons and examples to support your idea. You should write at least 150 words.

BPart BDirections: Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following information./B

【C1】______the way it feels, loneliness often has nothing to do with being alone. For some people, feelings of【C2】______are sharpest during times that are in fact defined by togetherness—celebrations or the holidays, for instance. 【C3】______a bustling shopping mall or a buzzing holiday party, and even within a crowd—or perhaps especially in a crowd—it's possible to feel unbearably alone. New research from experts in neuroscience and social science may give us some【C4】______as to why. Although we tend to think of it as a self-contained emotional state—a condition that【C5】______people individually, either by circumstance or by means of an antisocial personality—researchers now say that loneliness is more far-reaching than that. John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, believes it is a social【C6】______that exists within a society and can【C7】______through it like a disease. And while everyone feels lonely once in a while, for some it becomes a(n)【C8】______condition, one that has been【C9】______with more serious psychological ills like【C10】______, sleep disfunction, high blood pressure and even a(n)【C11】______risk of dementia in older age. Cacioppo and his team【C12】______on the children in Framingham. The results were【C13】______: If one person reported feeling lonely at one【C14】______, his closest connections (either family or close friends) were 52% more【C15】______to also report feeling lonely two years later. The effect was strongest among those in close relationships, declining【C16】______the connections became more distant, but remained【C17】______up to three degrees of separation—【C18】______one lonely person could influence whether his friend's friend's friend felt lonely. "Loneliness has been【C19】______in the past as depression, introversion, shyness or poor social skills," says Cacioppo. "Those turn out not to be right. Research we and others have done suggests that it really is a fundamental human motivational state very much like hunger, thirst or pain."【C20】______simply reflecting the emotional state of one person, Cacioppo says, loneliness is more like an indicator of the social health of our species on the whole—a temperature reading.

It is just one example of the growing concern over the increasing power consumption and environmental impact of computers. A study found that the power consumption of data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005, and now accounts for 1.2% of American electricity consumption, though other estimates put the figure at 4%. Companies now spend as much as 10% of their technology budgets on energy, says Rakesh Kumar of Gartner, a consultancy. Power consumption has increased because of the rise of the internet, of course, but also because of way in which computers have historically been designed; to maximize performance at all costs. Between 1996 and 2006, the number of servers in use went from 6 million to 28 million and the average power consumption of each server grew from 150 watts to 400 watts. But things are now starting to change and the computer industry has been seized with enthusiasm for "green computing".

It is a commonplace among moralists that you cannot get happiness by pursuing it. This is only true if you pursue it【C1】______. Gamblers at Monte Carlo are pursuing money, and most of them lose it instead, but there are other ways of pursuing money, which often【C2】______. So it is with happiness. If you pursue it【C3】______drink, you are forgetting the hangover. Epicurus pursued it by living a life surrounded by friends and eating only dry bread,【C4】______by a little cheese on feast days. His【C5】______proved successful in his case, but he was not healthy, and most people would need something more【C6】______. For most people, the pursuit of happiness, 【C7】______supplemented in various ways, is too abstract and theoretical to be adequate【C8】______a personal rule of life. But I think that whatever personal rule of life you may choose it should not, except in rare and heroic cases, be incompatible with happiness. There are a great many people who have all the【C9】______conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income, and who,【C10】______, are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the【C11】______must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from the animals than we are. Animals live on【C12】______, and are happy as long as external conditions are【C13】______. If you have a cat it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for a(n)【C14】______night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis in【C15】______. In civilized societies, especially in English-speaking societies, this is too【C16】______to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective, and【C17】______all impulses that do not minister to it. A businessman may be so【C18】______to grow rich that to this end he【C19】______health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no【C20】______remains to him except pushing other people to imitate his noble example.

BSection III Writing/B

Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It speeded up physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it【C1】______the inherent instability of urban life.【C2】______opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the buses,【C3】______. commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more【C4】______from city centers than they were in the pre-modern era In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay【C5】______two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the【C6】______extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still【C7】______there for work, shopping, and【C8】______. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city【C9】______an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now【C10】______as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago,【C11】______of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits【C12】______within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers【C13】______800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years—lots that could have housed five to six million people. Of course, many were never【C14】______; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These【C15】______present a feature of residential expansion【C16】______the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was【C17】______by thousands of small investors who paid little care to coordinated land use or to【C18】______land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders【C19】______transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this【C20】______. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.