You have bought a camera from a department store last weekend but several problems arise as you use it. Write to the customer service department to complain about this and give your suggestions about how to fix the problem. 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)
For hundreds of millions of years, turtles(海龟) have struggled out of the sea to lay their eggs on sandy beaches, long before there were nature documentaries to celebrate them, or GPS satellites and marine biologists to track them, or volunteers to hand-carry the hatchlings (幼龟) down to the water' s edge lest they become disoriented by headlights and crawl towards a motel parking lot instead. A formidable wall of bureaucracy has been erected to protect their prime nesting sites on the Atlantic coastlines. With all that attention paid to them, you'd think these creatures would at least have the gratitude not to go extinct. But Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness, and a report by the Fish and Wildlife Service showed a worrisome drop in the populations of several species of North Atlantic sea turtles, notably loggerheads (红海龟) , which can grow to as much as 400 pounds. The South Florida nesting population, the largest, has declined by 50% in the last decade, according to Elizabeth Griffin, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. The figures prompted Oceana to petition the government to upgrade the level of protection for the North Atlantic loggerheads from "threatened" to "endangered"—meaning they are in danger of disappearing without additional help. Which raises the obvious question: what else do these turtles want from us, anyway? It turns out, according to Griffin, that while we have done a good job of protecting the turtles for the weeks they spend on land (as egg-laying females, as eggs and as hatchlings) , we have neglected the years they spend in the ocean. "The threat is from commercial fishing," says Griffin. Trawlers (which drag large nets through the water and along the ocean floor) and long-line fishers (which can deploy thousands of hooks on lines that can stretch for miles) take a heavy toll(损失) on turtles. Of course, like every other environmental issue today, this is playing out against the background of global warming and human interference with natural ecosystems. The narrow strips of beach on which the turtles lay their eggs are being squeezed on one side by development and on the other by the threat of rising sea levels as the oceans warm. Ultimately we must get a handle on those issues as well, or a creature that outlived the dinosaurs (恐龙) will meet its end at the hands of humans, leaving our descendants to wonder how a creature so ugly could have won so much affection.
Forget milky drinks, hot water bottles or curling up with a good book. The real secret to a good night"s sleep may be where you sit at work. Not only can the stress of work leave employees【C1】______and turning, but sitting too far from a window can knock 46 minutes【C2】______a normal night"s sleep. Researchers found that workers forced to【C3】______in windowless rooms had a poorer quality of life and more irregular sleep patterns than those【C4】______daylight. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine,【C5】______the working environment may be【C6】______to setting the body"s own internal clock. Researchers say【C7】______designed offices could boost the physical and mental health of workers. "We suggest that architectural design of office environments should place more【C8】______on sufficient daylight exposure for workers in order to【C9】______health and well-being," said Dr Ivy Cheung of the Department of Neurology, Northwestern University, Chicago. "Office workers with more light exposure at the work place also【C10】______have better sleep quality, more physical activity and a better quality of life." A sunny day is equivalent to about 10,000 lux or higher of light. However indoor office lighting【C11】______provides only about 300 to 500 lux. One【C12】______three British people suffers from poor sleep, with stress, computers and taking work home often【C13】______for the shortage of quality sleep. 【C14】______the cost of all those sleepless nights is more than just bad moods and a【C15】______of focus. Regular poor sleep【C16】______the risk of serious medical conditions like obesity, heart and diabetes—and can even shorten life expectancy. 【C17】______exposure to natural daylight is known to be important for governing the body"s the built-in clock which【C18】______our sleeping and waking patterns. Independent sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley said the body needs exposure to daylight to keeps its sleeping patterns【C19】______Light is essentially the thing that tells our bodies to be【C20】______and dark tells them to go to sleep.
BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B
Suppose Doctor Brown, who is well known to the world for his achievements in the field of medicine, comes to your university as a visiting scholar. Write a welcoming speech to 1) introduce him, and 2) welcome him. You should write about 100 words.
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
Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Youshould1)describethechartand2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)
Suppose you are studying in Washington University. You lost your passport by accident yesterday. Write a letter to the Chinese Embassy in Washington to 1) give details of what happened, and 2) ask what you should do next. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.
When the residents of Buenos Aires want to change the pesos they do not trust into the dollars they do, they go to a cueva, or "cave" , an office that acts as a front for a thriving illegal exchange market. In one cueva near Florida Street, a pedestrian avenue in the centre of the city, piles of pesos from previous transactions lie on a table. A courier is getting ready to carry the notes to safety-deposit boxes. This smallish cueva handles transactions worth $ 50,000—75 ,000 a day. Fear of inflation and of further depreciation of the peso, which fell by more than 20% in January, will keep demand for dollars high. Few other ways of making money are this good. " Modern Argentina does not offer what you could call an institutional career," says one cueva owner. As the couriers carry their bundles around Buenos Aires, they pass grand buildings like the Teatro Col6n, an opera house that opened in 1908, and the Retire railway station, completed in 1915. These are emblems of Argentina"s Belle 6poque, the period before the outbreak of the first world war when the country could claim to be the world"s true land of opportunity. In the 43 years leading up to 1914, GDP had grown at an annual rate of 6% , the fastest recorded in the world. The country was a magnet for European immigrants, who flocked to find work on the fertile pampas, where crops and cattle were propelling Argentina"s expansion. In 1914 half of Buenos Aires"s population was foreign-born. The country ranked among the ten richest in the world, after the likes of Australia, Britain and the United States, but ahead of France, Germany and Italy. Its income per head was 92% of the average of 16 rich economies. From this point, it looked down its nose at its neighbours: Brazil"s population was less than a quarter as well-off. It never got better than this. Although Argentina has had periods of robust growth in the past century—not least during the commodity boom of the past ten years—and its people remain wealthier than most Latin Americans, its standing as one of the world"s most vibrant economies is a distant memory. Its income per head is now 43% of those same 16 rich economies; it trails Chile and Uruguay in its own backyard.
By the year 2100, global temperatures are expected to rise by between 0.8 and 3.5 degree Celsius. That may not seem like much, but such an increase in temperature would cause a rise in sea levels large enough to put the lives of up to 100 million people at risk. For the first time in the scientific community, there is total agreement that the activity of humans is at least partly responsible for the problem—specifically the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which is released by the burning of wood, coal and petroleum products. Reducing harmful emission is just one area in which the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel is decidedly optimistic. In the short term it might not prove that difficult. Efficiency improvements alone could cut energy needs by as much as 30 percent at virtually no extra cost and, in developed countries, emission reductions of up to 60 percent "are technically feasible". In the longer term, harmful emissions will be reduced as the world changes over to cheaper, less environmentally damaging energy sources.
Britain's flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery began, allowing employment to rise. Yet one of its bendier bits is causing politicians to fret. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, has promised a crackdown on "zero-hours contracts" if he wins the next election. The government has launched a consultation. Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need, with no prior notice. In theory, at least, people can refuse work. Fully 1. 4m jobs were based on these contracts in January 2014, according to the Office for National Statistics. That is just 4% of the total, but the share rises to a quarter in the hospitality business. The contracts are useful for firms with unstable patterns of demand, such as hotels and restaurants. They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery—allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff, who would be more costly to make redundant if things went wrong. Flexibility suits some workers, too. According to one survey, 47% of those employed on zero-hours contracts were content to have no minimum contracted hours. Many of these workers are in full-time education. The ability to turn down work is important to students, who want to revise at this time of year. Pensioners keen for a little extra income can often live with the uncertainty of not having guaranteed hours. Yet that leaves more than a quarter of workers on zero-hours contracts who say they are unhappy with their conditions. Some of this is cyclical. During recessions, a dearth of permanent positions forces people into jobs with no contracted hours even if they do not want them. Underemployment is particularly prevalent among these workers, 35% of whom would like more hours compared with 12% in other jobs. As the economy recovers, many should be able to renegotiate their contracts or find permanent jobs. But the recovery will not cause unwanted zero-hours contracts to disappear. Some workers will never have much negotiating power; they are constrained by geography, family commitments and lack of competition for their skills among a small number of big employers. Zero-hours contracts make it easier for employers to abuse their labour-market power. Some use them to avoid statutory obligations such as sick and maternity pay. Workers are penalised for not being available when requested. And some contracts contain exclusivity clauses which prevent workers from taking additional jobs. These can harm other employers as well as workers, and actually reduce labour market flexibility. That, at least, is worth doing away with.
BPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D./B
BPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D./B
BPart ADirections: Write a composition/letter of no less than 100 words on the following information./B
Humans are startlingly bad at detecting fraud. Even when we're on the lookout for signs of deception, studies show, our accuracy is hardly better than chance. Technology has opened the door to new and more pervasive forms of fraud: Americans lose an estimated $ 50 billion a year to con artists a-round the world, according to the Financial Fraud Research Center at Stanford University. But because computers aren't subject to the foibles of emotion and what we like to call "intuition," they can also help protect us. Here's how leading fraud researchers, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and computer scientists think technology can be put to work to fight fraud however it occurs—in person, online, or over the phone. Spam filters are supposed to block e-mail scams from ever reaching us, but criminals have learned to circumvent them by personalizing their notes with information gleaned from the Internet and by grooming victims over time. In response, a company called ZapFraud is turning to natural-language analytics; Instead of flagging key words, it looks for narrative patterns symptomatic of fraud. For instance, a message could contain a statement of surprise, the mention of a sum of money, and a call to action. "Those are the hallmark expressions of one particular fraud e-mail," Markus Jakobsson, the company's founder, told me. "There's a tremendous number of[spam]e-mails, but a small number of story lines. " A similar approach could help combat fraud by flagging false statements on social media. Kalina Bontcheva, a computer scientist who researches natural-language processing at the University of Sheffield, in England, is leading a project that examines streams of social data to identify rumors and esti mate their veracity by analyzing the semantics, cross-referencing information with trusted sources, identifying the point of origin and pattern of dissemination, and the like. Bontcheva is part of a research collaboration which plans to flag misleading tweets and posts and classify them by severity: speculation, controversy, misinformation, or disinformation.
Suppose your friend Mike's father passed away yesterday. Mike is in deep sorrow. Write him an email to 1) comfort him, and 2) express condolence. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.
Directions:Inthispart,youareaskedtowriteanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechartand2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteatleast150words.WriteyouressayonANSWERSHEET2.(15points)FinancialSourcesofCollegeStudents1)描述中美大学生经济资助状况2)分析这种状况的成因3)预测中国大学生经济资助的可能变化
The U.S. system of higher education is widely considered the world"s best. A college education【C1】______substantial benefits—about $20,000 per year【C2】______extra earnings over the course of a lifetime.【C3】______. according to a recent survey, 57 percent of Americans think higher education is not a good value,【C4】______they know how much it boosts earning power. And with the cost of many state universities【C5】______. the perceptions that college is too expensive for most people are【C6】______. Clearly, higher education officials must think harder about affordability—including not only more scholarship money but also lower costs and higher【C7】______One promising idea is the three-year degree which enables students to spend【C8】______. And they would have an extra year of work to pay the costs of education. There are many【C9】______approaches to the three-year degree: Schools can make it easier for students to【C10】______college credit earned in high school; they can fashion programs that【C11】______nearly four years of credits into three years, making use of summer and online learning; they can consider a more focused and streamlined curriculum. What all such【C12】______assume is that universities and colleges could make more intensive use of resources that often lie idle for much of the year under the【C13】______pattern. But up to now, only a handful of schools offered three-year degree【C14】______. Colleges and universities prefer to【C15】______the four-year model because of powerful economic incentives. Most won"t offer a three-year option【C16】______those incentives change. That may be starting to happen: The recent budget proposal by Ohio Governor John Kasich requires the state"s public univer sities to prepare【C17】______to offer three-year undergraduate degrees. It probably will take successful innovation by one or more large state systems to【C18】______change nationwide. Perhaps federal aid to universities or the schools" participation in the student loan program could be partly conditioned on offering a three-year degree option. Today"s students have the ability to acquire and【C19】______knowledge faster than any previous generation,【C20】______technology. Higher education needs to catch up.
Despite helping to record events, photos could damage our memories. Researchers found people who take pictures have【C1】______remembering what actually happened. This phenomenon has been named "photo-taking impairment effect". From children"s birthdays to that long-awaited family holiday, we all want to remember those【C2】______moments with a photograph.【C3】______if you"re one of those people who can"t stop【C4】______beware then—you could【C5】______forgetting it all in a flash. A study has found that taking too many photos may prevent us from forming detailed memories. Researchers from Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Columbia University in the U.S. recently found that many people now use the Internet【C6】______a memory. They claimed that when someone wants to know something they now use the Internet【C7】______an "external memory" just as computers use an external hard【C8】______. The study continued that we are now so【C9】______on smartphones and laptops, we go into "withdrawal when we can"t find out something【C10】______". Far from helping us to【C11】______the moment, it could mean we miss what"s going on right in front of our noses. Researchers led a group of students around a museum and asked them to either photograph or try to remember certain works of art and historical【C12】______. The next day, their memory was tested. It showed they were【C13】______at recognizing objects they had photographed than those they had only looked at. They were also poorer at【C14】______details of the objects they had taken pictures of. Dr Linda Henkel, who conducted the study at Fair field University in Connecticut, said: "People so often【C15】______out their cameras almost mindlessly. When people rely on technology to remember for them, it can have a【C16】______impact on how well they remember their【C17】______." Previous studies have suggested that【C18】______old photos can help us remember, but only if we spend long enough doing it. "In order to remember, we have to【C19】______and interact with the photos, rather than just【C20】______them," said Dr Henkel.
[A] Pick up the local paper[B] Save from the first place[C] Use a guidebook—your own[D] Pick up the phone[E] Choose cheap countries[F] Download magazines from web[G] Splurge when it matters You've mastered the art of modern-travel savings: Your airfare alerts are set up on Kayak; you flit around Europe on cheap carriers like EasyJet. You stay in apartments rented through Airbnb. You could probably shave a few more cents off travel costs by downloading five new apps and bookmarking 10 new sites. But real savings will come to those who go retro by stepping away from the screen, or using it differently, to find old-fashioned tactics that can save you big. Here are some old-school tips for getting the most out of your travel buck. 【R1】______ We think we can get everything done online these days, but sometimes a simple phone call is your best bet for saving money. Speak with an innkeeper and learn of potential discounts on extended stays or information on how to get there from the airport by public transit. Contact the specific location where you'll pick up your rental car and reserve a compact to avoid getting "upgraded" to a bigger vehicle that will increase (sometimes even double) your gas costs. Call travel agencies that strike special deals with airlines to get your prices below anything you' ll find online. 【R2】______ Goodbye Norway, hello Bolivia. Or as a blogger put it, "Cheapest dorm bed in Zurich=nice room in Bangkok." Extrapolate that to tour guides, museum entries, food and more, and the savings start to add up. Of course, keep in mind how much it will cost you to get there in the first place. Luckily, a lot of the cheaper countries are also cheap to fly to; another blogger put together a list of 10 "Cheap Places to Travel on the U.S. Dollar," which includes Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, Hungary and Romania. 【R3】______ Most travelers will never be across-the-board cheapskates. Street food, nosebleed-theater seats and bunk beds are not for everyone. But you don't have to be a purist. For each trip, decide on a themed "waste" or two—transportation, food, arts, lodging—and save on the rest. 【R4】______ No listings are more up-to-the-minute than Friday arts supplements, alternative weeklies or the local editions of Time Out magazine. Get them on actual paper while they last. You' ll not only find the nontouristy scene laid out for you in one handy package, but often come across coupons or specials you certainly won't find on Yelp. 【R5】______ I still carry a travel guide around when I travel—as backup, if nothing else. But those books are pricey, and there's so much free information online that, with a little copying and pasting (and printing out), you can come pretty close to matching them with your own bespoke travel guide. So, in a retro twist, no Wi-Fi needed.
