Eva Ullmann took her master's degree in 2002 on the part that humour has to play in psychotherapy, and became hooked on the subject. In 2005 she founded the German Institute for Humour in Leipzig. It is dedicated to "the combination of seriousness and humour". She offers lectures, seminars and personal coaching to managers, from small firms to such corporate giants as Deutsche Bank and Telekom. Her latest project is to help train medical students and doctors. There is nothing peculiarly German about humour training. It was John Morreall, an American, who showed that humour is a market segment in the ever-expanding American genre of self-help. In the past two decades, humour has gone global. An International Humour Congress was held in Amsterdam in 2000. And yet Germans know that the rest of the world considers them to be at a particular disadvantage. The issue is not comedy, of which Germany has plenty. The late Vicco von Buelow, alias Lori-ot, delighted the elite with his mockery of German seriousness and stiffness. Rhenish, Swabian and other regional flavours thrive—Gerhard Polt, a bad-tempered Bavarian, now 72, is a Shakespeare among them. There is lowbrow talent too, including Otto Waalkes, a Frisian buffoon. Most of this, however, is as foreigners always suspected: more embarrassing than funny. Germans can often be observed laughing, loudly. And they try hard. "They cannot produce good humour, but they can consume it," says James Parsons, an English man teaching business English in Leipzig. He once rented a theatre and got students, including Mrs Ullmann, to act out Monty Python skits, which they did with enthusiasm. The trouble, he says, is that whereas the English wait deadpan for the penny to drop, Germans invariably explain their punchline. At a deeper level, the problem has nothing to do with jokes. What is missing is the series of irony, overstatement and understatement in workaday conversations. Immigrants in Germany share soul-crushing stories of attempting a non-literal turn of phrase, to evoke a horrified expression in their German friends and a detailed explanation of the literal meaning, followed by a retreat into awkward politeness. Irony is not on the curriculum in Mrs Ullmann's classes. Instead she focuses mostly on the basics of humorous spontaneity and surprise. Demand is strong, she says. It is a typical German answer to a shortcoming: work harder at it.

Leaving the European Union would save every Dutch household 9,800 a year by 2035, claims Capital Economics, a London consultancy, in a report commissioned by Geert Wilders" far-right PVV party. Mr Wilders calls this "the best news in years" , painting a picture of a country freed from the chokehold of Brussels, mass migration and high taxes, and enjoying more trade, more jobs and a booming economy. The report lists the benefits of departure; lower business costs because of less regulation; no more net payments to the EU; a doubling of the share of trade with emerging markets; faster economic recovery. The only cost is the transition from the euro to a new guilder, and this is "modest and manageable". The report concludes that Dutch GDP would be 10—13% higher by 2035. This finds a receptive audience among those Dutch who are looking for scapegoats. Unemployment has doubled since 2008 and the economy is flat. A recent poll finds a majority of Dutch voters in favour of leaving the EU if that would lead to more jobs and growth. The PVV is leading in opinion polls before the European elections in May. Yet there are problems with the Capital Economics report. The idea that the economy would miraculously recover if freed from the European Central Bank"s policies ignores the structural failings that hold it back. The assumption that having the guilder would allow a much looser monetary policy is, at best, questionable. And it defies political reality to imagine that Netherlands would enjoy virtually cost-free access to the EU"s single market, which takes 75% of Dutch exports. Norway and Switzerland both pay for the privilege and have to comply with most EU laws and regulations; the latest Swiss vote for quotas on EU migration threatens the entire relationship. Despite its flaws, the report fires a welcome starting-gun for a debate about what is good and bad about the EU. Some 66% of the Dutch feel their "No" vote in the 2005 referendum on the EU constitution was largely ignored. If regulation costs as much as the report claims, and if the ECB"s monetary policy is too restrictive, both should be changed. Defenders of the EU also need to stress its less tangible benefits, such as peace, shared interests and the boost to the fight against cross-border crime.

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

Suppose you are taking charge of the recruitment of the Dance Association in your university, and you just received an application letter from a freshman Wendy. Write her a letter to 1) acknowledge that you have received her application letter, and 2) tell her to wait for your reply next week. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.

[A]Robots Come from the Movies. [B]Development of Robots Is Fast. [C]Google Enters the Robot Industry. [D]Robots Today Are Not Impressive Enough. [E]The Future Robot Market Rests With Fancy. [F]Robots May Be Different in the Near Future. [G]More Money Is Thrown into the Robot Industry. Robots came into the world as a literary device whereby the writers and film-makers of the early 20th century could explore their hopes and fears about technology, as the era of the automobile, telephone and aeroplane picked up its reckless jazz-age speed. From Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot to WALL-E and the Terminator films, and in countless repetitions in between, they have succeeded admirably in their task. 【R1】______ Since moving from the page and screen to real life, robots have been a mild disappointment. They do some things that humans cannot do themselves, like exploring Mars, and a host of things people do not much want to do, like dealing with unexploded bombs or vacuuming floors. And they are very useful in bits of manufacturing. But reliable robots—especially ones required to work beyond the safety cages of a factory floor—have proved hard to make, and robots are still pretty stupid. So although they fascinate people, they have not yet made much of a mark on the world. 【R2】______ That seems about to change. The exponential growth in the power of silicon chips, digital sensors and high-bandwidth communications improves robots just as it improves all sorts of other products. And, as our special report this week explains, three other factors are at play. 【R3】______ One is that robotics R eventually some of them will build mass markets. Aerial robots—drones—may be in the vanguard here. They will let farmers tend their crops in new ways, give citizens, journalists and broadcasters new perspectives on events big and small, monitor traffic and fires, look for infrastructure in need of repair and much more besides.

Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingtable.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethetableand2)stateyouropinionsdrawnfromit.Youshouldwriteatleast150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)

Older people must be given more chances to learn if they are to contribute to society rather than be a financial burden, according to a new study on population published recently. The current approach which【C1】______ on younger people and on skills for employment is not【C2】______ to meet the challenges of demographic (人口结构的) change, it says. Only 1% of the education budget is【C3】______ spent on the oldest third of the population. The【C4】______ include the fact that most people can expect to spend a third of their lives in【C5】______ , that there are now more people over 59 than under 16 and that 11.3 million people are【C6】______ state pension age. 【C7】______ needs to continue throughout life. Our historic concentration of policy attention and resources【C8】______ young people cannot meet the new【C9】______ ," says the report's author, Professor Stephen McNair. The major【C10】______ of our education budget is spent on people below the age of 25.【C11】______ people are changing their jobs,【C12】______ , partners and lifestyles more often than【C13】______ , they need opportunities to learn at every age.【C14】______ , some people are starting new careers in their 50s and later. People need opportunities to make a "midlife review" to【C15】______ to the later stages of employed life, and to plan for the transition【C16】______ retirement, which may now happen【C17】______ at any point from 50 to over 90, says McNair. And there should be more money【C18】______ to support people in establishing a【C19】______ of identity and finding constructive【C20】______ for the " third age" , the 20 or more years they will spend in healthy retired life.

Directions: You are writing a master's thesis and need some reference materials. Write a letter to Professor Richard and ask for his help, for he is the distinguished authority and has published quite a few important books related to your thesis. You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not use your own name at the end of the notice. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address. (10 points)

BSection III Writing/B

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. 拼写在英语学习里是非常重要的。但如今，很多学生忽略自己的拼写错误。他们认为自己不必去记忆单词的拼写，因为总有电脑软件可以自动检查拼写并且进行更正。你的看法如何?

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

In 1930, when the world was "suffering from a bad attack of economic pessimism" , John May-nard Keynes wrote a broadly optimistic essay, "Economic Possibilities for our Grand-children". It imagined a middle way between revolution and stagnation that would leave the grandchildren a great deal richer than their grandparents. But the path was not without dangers. One of the worries Keynes admitted was a "new disease" : "technological unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour. " His readers might not have heard of the problem, he suggested—but they were certain to hear a lot more about it in the years to come. For the most part, they did not. Nowadays, the majority of economists confidently wave such worries away. By raising productivity, they argue, any automation which economises on the use of labour will increase incomes. That will generate demand for new products and services, which will in turn create new jobs for displaced workers. To think otherwise has meant being tarred a Luddite— the name taken by 19th-century textile workers who smashed the machines taking their jobs. For much of the 20th century, those arguing that technology brought ever more jobs and prosperity looked to have the better of the debate. Real incomes in Britain scarcely doubled between the beginning of the common era and 1570. They then tripled from 1570 to 1875. And they more than tripled from 1875 to 1975. Industrialisation did not end up eliminating the need for human workers. On the contrary, it created employment opportunities sufficient to absorb the 20th century"s exploding population. Keynes" vision of everyone in the 2030s being a lot richer is largely achieved. His belief they would work just 15 hours or so a week has not come to pass.

Aging poses a serious challenge to OECD (Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, in particular, how to pay for future public pension liabilities. And early retirement places an【C1】______ burden on pension financing. There is no easy solution, but【C2】______ retirement could help. Early retirement may seem like a worthy individual goal, but it is a socially【C3】______ one, and makes the present public pension system difficult to sustain for long. The【C4】______ reason is that more people are retiring early and living longer. That means more retirees depending on the【C5】______ of those in work for their income. The【C6】______ is worrying. In the next 50 years, low fertility rates and【C7】______ life expectancy in OECD countries will cause this old-age dependency rate to roughly double【C8】______ size. Public pension payments, which afford 30%~80% of total retirement incomes in OECD countries, are【C9】______ to rise, on average, by over three percentage points in GDP and by as much as eight percentage points in some countries.【C10】______ is the pressure on pension funds that there is a danger of today's workers not getting the pensions they expected or felt they【C11】______ for. Action is needed,【C12】______ simply aiming to reduce the【C13】______ (and cost) of public pensions, or trying to【C14】______ the role of privately funded pensions within the system, though necessary steps, may be【C15】______ to deal with the dependency challenge. After years of【C16】______ early retirement schemes to avoid【C17】______ and higher unemployment, many governments are now looking【C18】______ persuading people to stay in work until they are older. Surely, the thinking goes, if we are healthier now and jobs are physically less【C19】______ and unemployment is down, then perhaps the【C20】______ rate should rise anew.

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

Ellen Pao spent the last few years spotlighting the technology industry's lack of diversity, in court and beyond. Erica Baker caused a stir at Google when she started a spreadsheet last year for employees to share their salaries, highlighting the pay disparities between those of different genders doing the same job. Laura I. Gomez founded a start-up focused on improving diversity in the hiring process. Now the three are starting an effort to collect and share data to help diversify the rank-and-file employees who make up tech companies. The nonprofit venture, called Project Include, was unveiled on Tuesday. As part of Project Include, the group plans to extract commitments from tech companies to track the diversity of their work forces over time and eventually share that data with other start-ups. The effort will focus on start-ups that employ 25 to 1,000 workers, in the hope of spurring the companies to think about equality sooner rather than later. The project will also ask for participation from venture capital firms that advise and mentor the start-ups. Project Include aims to have 18 companies as part of its first cohort; a few have already signed up. The group will meet regularly for seven months to define and track specific metrics. At the end of that period, the group will publish an anonymized set of results to show the progress—or lack thereof—that the start-ups have made around diversity. The group' s push is intended to cut through tech' s slow pace of change on diversity. Large companies, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft, have openly admitted their failings in creating diverse work forces, and some have started programs to move the needle . But that has not seemed to spur much movement in views on the issue. In December, for instance, Michael Moritz, a partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, made headlines when he said in an interview that his firm—which had no female investment partners in the United States—would focus on hiring women but would not "lower its standards" to do so. He also said the firm was blind to gender and race. "It is this incredibly self-serving mythology that we are the best and the brightest, and that the best ideas rise to the top and will get funded," said Ms. Kapor Klein, noting there is plenty of data to show that minority access to tech programs and networks is worse than that of white males. "Despite an avalanche of rigorous data to the contrary, the belief in pure meritocracy persists."

More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. According to a survey, the number of people who said they【C1】______regular exercise, has been rising. And yet obesity【C2】______have risen significantly: a third of Americans are obese, and another third【C3】______as overweight by the Federal Government"s【C4】______. Yes, it"s entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised【C5】______. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise,【C6】______I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don"t. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight? The【C7】______wisdom that exercise is essential for shedding pounds is actually fairly【C8】______. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against【C9】______exercise, particularly for older adults who could【C10】______themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of【C11】______—those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly【C12】______. "In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty【C13】______," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn"t as important【C14】______helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on【C15】______like The Biggest Loser. The basic problem is that【C16】______it"s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can【C17】______hunger. That causes us to eat more, which【C18】______can deny the weight-loss benefits we just【C19】______. Exercise, in other words, isn"t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it【C20】______.

With polished stone floors and a plate-glass roof, a shining multi-storey shopping mall has just opened beside a motorway north of Paris. Named Qwartz, and costing 300m, it houses 165 shops and what developers call " eating concepts". Two other American-style shopping malls opened in the greater Paris region last year, and a third, So Ouest, in 2012. A country that prides itself on fashion designer boutiques and artisanal shops seems to be turning into one of mall rats. Partly this is just catching up. Until recently, strict planning rules stopped big out-of-town shopping centres around the French capital. Most malls that existed, such as Velizy 2 or Rosny 2, dated from the 1970s, when five new towns were built in the Paris suburbs. But a new relaxed attitude has now let more modern projects go ahead. It also points to two features of French society that escape the gaze of historic Paris. One is most shoppers' suburban way of life. Only 2. 2m people live in the capital itself. Yet the greater Paris region, excluding the city, counts over four times more inhabitants, many in small towns and car-dependent suburbs. The new malls, ringed by car parks, are handy, even alluring. Fully 62% of the French told one poll that malls were their favourite places to shop, ahead of the high street or traditional department stores. The other trend is the global taste of consumers. Besides a huge French hypermarket, Qwartz's big pull is Primark, an Irish cheap-fashion retailer, and Marks & Spencer, a British chain. Just down the road, So Ouest boasts Hollister, an American surfwear brand, Starbucks, an American coffee house, and foreign fashion chains such as H&M and Zara. In today's temples of consumption, global is a la mode . This is not quite the France favoured by Arnaud Montebourg, the industry minister and architect of a "Made in France" campaign. He is now trying to keep American hands off Alstom, the French maker of TGV fast trains. He once posed cheerfully for a magazine, dressed in a striped Breton top and holding a Moulinex food-blender. Yet even French brands are not always home-made, as Benjamin Carle, a reporter, discovered filming a television documentary about his efforts to live for a year using only products made in France. The result was comic—and sobering. Not only was it impossible to find some items, including a fridge and coffee. Mr Carle initially had to empty his flat of anything that did not meet the test of 50% of its value being made in France. Out went the bicycle, computer, guitar, most of the furniture, beer, clothes, toothbrush and more. The share of his stuff that qualified as French-made? Just 4.5%.

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

The relationship between formal education and economic growth in poor countries is widely misunderstood by economists and politicians alike. Progress in both areas is undoubtedly necessary for the social, political and intellectual development of these and all other societies; however, the conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor countries is wrong. We are fortunate that it is, because building new educational systems there and putting enough people through them to improve economic performance would require two or three generations. The findings of a research institution have consistently shown that workers in all countries can be trained on the job to achieve radically higher productivity and, as a result, radically higher standards of living. Ironically, the first evidence for this idea appeared in the United States. Not long ago, with the country entering a recession and Japan at its pre-bubble peak, the U.S. workforce was derided(嘲笑) as poorly educated and one of the primary cause of the poor U.S. economic performance. Japan was, and remains, the global leader in automotive-assembly productivity. Yet the research revealed that the U.S. factories of Honda, Nissan, and Toyota achieved about 95 percent of the productivity of their Japanese counterparts—a result of the training that U.S. workers received on the job. More recently, while examining housing construction, the researchers discovered that illiterate, non-English-speaking Mexican workers in Houston, Texas, consistently met best-practice labor productivity standards despite the complexity of the building industry's work. What is the real relationship between education and economic development? We have to suspect that continuing economic growth promotes the development of education even when governments don't force it. After all, that's how education got started. When our ancestors were hunters and gatherers 10 000 years ago, they didn't have time to wonder much about anything besides finding food. Only when humanity began to get its food in a more productive way was there time for other things. As education improved, humanity's productivity potential increased as well. When the competitive environment pushed our ancestors to achieve that potential, they could in turn afford more education. This increasingly high level of education is probably a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for the complex political systems required by advanced economic performance. Thus poor countries might not be able to escape their poverty traps without political changes that may be possible only with broader formal education. A lack of formal education, however, doesn't constrain the ability of the developing world's workforce to substantially improve productivity for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, constraints on improving productivity explain why education isn't developing more quickly there than it is.

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