BPart ADirections: Write a composition/letter of no less than 100 words on the following information./B

On her first morning in America, last summer, my daughter went out to explore her new neighborhood—alone, without even telling my wife or me. Of course we were worried; we had just moved from Berlin, and she was just 8. But when she came home, we realized we had no reason to panic. Beaming with pride, she told us how she had discovered the little park around the corner, and had made friends with a few local dog owners. She had taken possession of her new environment, and was keen to teach us things we didn' t know. When this story comes up in conversations with American friends, we are usually met with polite disbelief. Most are horrified by the idea that their children might roam around without adult supervision. A study by the University of California, Los Angeles, has found that American kids spend 90 percent of their leisure time at home. Even when kids are physically active, they are watched closely by adults. Such narrowing of the child's world has happened across the developed world. But Germany is generally much more accepting of letting children take some risks. To this German parent, it seems that America's middle class has taken overprotective parenting to a new level. "We are depriving them of opportunities to learn how to take control of their own lives," writes Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College. He argues that this increases "the chance that they will suffer from anxiety, depression, and so on," which have gone up dramatically in recent decades. He sees risky, outside play of children among themselves without adult supervision as a way of learning to control strong emotions like anger and fear. I am no psychologist like Professor Gray, but I know I won't be around forever to protect my girl from the challenges life holds in store for her, so the earlier she develop the intellectual maturity to navigate the world, the better. And by giving kids more control over their lives, they learn to have more confidence in their own capabilities. It is hard for parents to balance the desire to protect their children against the desire to make them more self-reliant. And every one of us has to decide for himself what level of risk he is ready to accept. But parents who prefer to keep their children always in sight and under their thumbs should consider what sort of trade-offs are involved in that choice.

Directions： In this part，you are asked to write an essay according to the information below．You should write more than 150 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2．(15 points) 现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班，对这种做法有人表示支持，有人持反对态度，请表明你的观点。

Directions: 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. 大学教育的费用是很高的，对于每个人而言都是一笔很大的经济负担。不同的学生用不同的方法来筹集自己的大学教育经费。你是怎么做的呢?

It is hard to make money peddling social media anywhere. During their first few years in business , Facebook and Twitter lost pots of money. Yet somehow Tencent, an innovative Chinese firm that released the WeChat app in 2011, seems to have cracked the code. Alicia Yap of Barclays, an investment bank, forecasts that WeChat will earn some 6. 8 billion yuan($1.1 billion)this year and 9. 6 billion yuan next year. The reasons for optimism include clever integration of the app with other money-making services and spectacular growth in users at home and, unusually for a Chinese app, abroad. WeChat started off as a messaging service, similar to America"s WhatsApp, but it has grown rapidly into much more. In recent months, Tencent has integrated online-payment functions into it. Customers can do their banking through it and a wealth-management service has just been launched. It is also promoting e-commerce: during a recent sale held exclusively on WeChat, Xiaomi, China"s hottest smartphone-maker, is said to have sold 150,000 of its latest model in under ten minutes. Most internet companies that make money do so by selling online ads, but Tencent makes most of its money selling customers virtual goods. About 85% of the money Tencent will make this year from the app will come from gaming. Tencent says that WeChat has 270m active users, including tens of millions overseas. Their number and enthusiasm matter a lot to marketers. At the moment, Tencent allows companies to send occasional, targeted messages to some users without charge. Mark Natkin of Marbridge, a consultancy, says that in future it might ask for a fee. The biggest unknown about WeChat is whether the app can become a global blockbuster like Twitter or Facebook. Mr Natkin points out that the app will lose one of its most attractive features outside the country. WeChat usage exploded in part because it integrates a user"s address book from Tencent"s QQ, an old-fashioned instant-messaging service that has over 800m registered users, though few outside China. WeChat is already used in South-East Asia, Russia and India. The app is available in the Japanese and Korean languages, but strong local rivals already exist in those markets. America and Europe will be harder to crack. To succeed there, it must beat WhatsApp and other rivals.

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

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

Suppose you are striving to find a job in ABC Company. Write a letter of request to your teacher Professor Brown to 1) ask him to write a recommendation letter for you, and 2) tell him how to reply you. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.

BPart B/B

As any human being knows, many factors govern whether people are happy or unhappy. External circumstances are important: employed people are happier than unemployed ones and better-off people than poor ones. Age has a role, too . But personality is the single biggest determinant: extroverts are happier than introverts, and confident people happier than anxious ones. That personality, along with intelligence, is at least partly heritable is becoming increasingly clear; so, presumably, the tendency to be happy or miserable is, to some extent, passed on through DNA. To try to establish just what that extent is, a group of scientists examined over 1, 000 pairs of twins from a huge study on the health of American adolescents. They conclude that about a third of the variation in people' s happiness is heritable. But while twin studies are useful for establishing the extent to which a characteristic is heritable, they do not finger the particular genes at work. One of the researchers, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, of University College, London, and the London School of Economics, has tried to do just that, by picking a popular suspect—the gene that encodes the serotonin-transporter protein, and examining how variants of that gene affect levels of happiness. Serotonin is involved in mood regulation. Serotonin transporters are crucial to this job. The serotonin-transporter gene comes in two functional variants—long and short People have two versions(known as alleles). The adolescents in Dr. De Neve' s study were asked to grade themselves from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. Dr. De Neve found that those with one long allele were 8% more likely than those with none to describe themselves as very satisfied; those with two long alleles were 17% more likely. Which is interesting. Where the story could become controversial is when the ethnic origins of the volunteers are taken into account. All were Americans, but they were asked to classify themselves by race as well. On average, the Asian Americans in the sample had 0.69 long genes, the black Americans had 1.47 and the white Americans had 1.12. There is growing interest in the study of happiness, not just among geneticists but also among economists and policymakers dissatisfied with current ways of measuring humanity's achievements. Future work in this field will be read avidly in those circles.

Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthedrawing.Inyourwriting,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.

[A]Find out What You're Worth [B]Make the Right Moves [C]Use the Right Words [D]Be Confident [E]Know When to Let Go [F]Assess Yourself [G]Check and Double-Check You've been working hard—coming in early, staying late, and picking up extra responsibilities. Now you're looking for a raise to reward your efforts—but you're not sure how to go about it. "Women typically earn 20 to 30 percent less than men with the same job titles because they struggle with salary negotiating," says Robin Ryan, career counselor. Here she highlights classic negotiating mistakes and shares rules for getting the raise to which you're entitled. 【R1】______ Many women often don't realize that they can ask for more money, or they're afraid that doing so will jeopardize the job offer—a reaction Ryan attributes to the issue of self-worth. "As Black women, we may be sensitive about the stereotype that we all have attitudes. It's cultural. Most of us are brought up to be 'nice' , and we don't like to come across as too aggressive, " she says. But being proactive about your career is never wrong. 【R2】______ Incremental raises are standard but may not account for all the work you do. "At least once a year, you need to do your own career checkup," says Ryan. "Ask yourself: Am I happy? Have I taken on additional responsibilities? Am I working above my job title?" Create a chart that outlines the job you were hired for in comparison to your current responsibilities. "You might be able to make a good case for a promotion, which would come with a raise," she says. 【R3】______ Resources such as salary.com can give you the average pay for your position in your industry based on your location. Use the average, along with your self-assessment and where you live, to determine your overall worth. (For example, the cost of living in Los Angeles may not stretch a salary of $35,000 as far as it would in Kansas City.) You can also bargain by asking for additional vacation time and perks to your benefits package. Are you a new hire? Ask about a signing bonus, as well as specific offerings (for instance, flex-time, vacation, paid leaves, tuition reimbursement) , and work them into your compensation discussion. 【R4】______ If you've saved the company time or money with one of your ideas, toot your own horn. "You want to talk about adjusting your salary to compensate you for what the company is receiving, " Ryan says. Using these key words can help illustrate your valuable contributions and make a better case for your raise based on merit. And remember, while major life changes—having a baby, buying a house or a car—can certainly be a drain on your income, they do not warrant an increase to your salary, warns Ryan. 【R5】______ You can climb the corporate ladder by broadening your network at your company, letting people know about your goals, or transitioning into other departments where there is opportunity. However, big salary hikes tend to happen when you change jobs from one firm to another. Ryan's rules when negotiating: Never reveal your prior salary, and always use a range instead of the exact figure when asked about your salary expectations. " You maintain more negotiating power to ask for more money, " she says.

Retrofitting houses to use less energy should be a no-brainer for homeowners.【C1】______time, money spent on ways to reduce heat loss from draughty houses should produce a【C2】______return in lower fuel bills. In practice, many are cautious. Some improvements, such as solid-wall insulation and solar panels, can take over 25 years to【C3】______their initial cost. Few owners are willing to wait that long; by then many are likely to have【C4】______and moved on. Several governments have started finance schemes designed to【C5】______this problem. Since 2008 PACE programmes have offered American homeowners loans to【C6】______improvements, repaid through higher local taxes on the property,【C7】______it belongs to. In Britain, the Green Deal offers loans over a 25-year period, with repayments added to energy bills. Countries including France and Canada have similar【C8】______. In theory, these schemes should boost investment in common energy-saving measures, such as extra insulation and new boilers,【C9】______the first owner does not have to pay all the costs in advance. But enrolment rates have【C10】______, according to Sean Kidney at the Climate Bonds Initiative, a think-tank. In Britain, just 1% of those assessed for the Green Deal have signed up. In Berkeley, California , home of the first PACE scheme, the【C11】______rate is similarly low. Homeowners are【C12】______chiefly because the interest rates on the loans look high. The Green Deal charges 7%; some PACE schemes a hefty 8%. As these rates are fixed for decades, they will【C13】______look unattractive when (as now) short-term interest rates are low. Many people also【C14】______they will save enough on their energy bills to cover the repayments. For instance,【C15】______in Britain that installing loft insulation can cut energy bills by 20% have been dented by a government study that found it【C16】______gas consumption by only 1.7% on average. Others fear that green loans may reduce the value of their home. In America, firms that underwrite mortgages are【C17】______PACE loans. Green loans have not been a failure everywhere. Around 250,000 households in Germany【C18】______for them each year. They do so【C19】______they need pay only 1% interest on them each year, thanks to an annual public subsidy of 1.5 billion. Whether that is a (an)【C20】______use of taxpayers' money is another question.

Heart disease has long been Britain's biggest single killer. Despite our efforts to ward off its risk factors with more exercise and a healthier diet, the statistics remain sobering—particularly if you are a man. According to the British Heart Foundation, one in seven men will die from heart disease compared with one in 11 women, and of the 2. 3 million people living with heart disease in the UK, 60 percent are men. Professor Jamie Waterall, the national lead for cardiovascular disease prevention at PHE, says there are many reasons why more men than women are suffering heart disease. "Women do have the advantage of some hormonal protection of the heart prior to the menopause, which lessens their risk, but from that age onwards things should even out. But men continue to display an abundance of risky lifestyle behaviours that make them more vulnerable. They eat more, drink more, smoke more, for example. " Numerous studies have shown that excess belly fat, even if you are skinny everywhere else, can be deadly. "Fat around the middle—especially the deep visceral fat hidden in your abdomen—has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease because these fat cells produce damaging toxic substances," Allen says. Previously, men were advised to drink no more than three to four units of alcohol a day, which technically meant they could consume 28 units a week. The latest rules have cut that to no more than 14 units. Cutting down is one thing, but you should also spread your alcohol intake and have "several drink-free days per week" , according to the charity Drinkaware. Doing so can help your weight and cholesterol levels, both bad for the heart, to drop. According to the smoking cessation charity Ash, smoking at any age causes about 14 percent of deaths from heart disease. If you are a smoker, stopping is the single most important thing you can do. Switching to e-cigarettes or vaping is a positive move—provided that you eventually stop for good. In February a study from the University of California revealed that people who vape are more likely to have higher adrenaline levels and more stress in the heart, both of which have an adverse effect on cardiovascular health. "In the short term, using e-cigarettes may be useful as a stepping stone to quitting, but the ultimate goal is to stop using them too," says Allen.

Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $ 26 a barrel, up from less than $ 10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary (可怕的) memories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled (成四倍) , and 1979—1980, when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time? The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term. Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted(温和的) effect on pump prices than in the past. Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings (摆动) in the oil price. Energy conservation(节约) , a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy-intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $ 22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $ 13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0. 25% -0.5% of GDP. That is less than one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil-importing emerging economies — to which heavy industry has shifted — have become more energy-intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed. One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist's commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70% , and in 1979 by almost 30%.

Music is not tangible. You can't eat it, drink it or mate with it. It doesn't protect against the rain, wind or cold. It doesn't vanquish predators or mend broken bones. And yet humans have always prized music—or well beyond prized, loved it. In the modern age we spend great sums of money to attend concerts, download music files, play instruments and listen to our favorite artists whether we're in a subway or salon. But even more than 10,000 years ago, people invested significant time and effort to create music, as the discovery of flutes carved from animal bones would suggest. So why does this thingless "thing" —at its core, a mere sequence of sounds—hold such potentially enormous intrinsic value? The quick and easy explanation is that music brings a unique pleasure to humans.

BSection III Writing/B

Walmart is at an " inflection point ". Those words are truer now than when Bill Simon, the head of its American operation, uttered them last October. He was talking about Walmart"s plan for the first time to open more small and medium-sized stores in 2014 than giant "supercentres" , and all that would mean. Now another big change looms. On February 1st the company gets a new chief executive , Doug McMillon, until now the head of its international business. In some respects Mr McMillon looks like a natural choice to manage a huge beast that inspires loathing and loyalty in equal measure. A native of Arkansas, Walmart"s home state, he started out in one of the company"s warehouses, rose as a specialist in merchandising(deciding how goods are displayed and sold in stores)and was head of the Sam"s Club unit, stores where members buy in bulk. Genial and approachable, Mr McMillon may cure the corporate problem that afflicts Walmart when it talks to its 2. 2m employees, to its giant customer base(90% of Americans shop there at least once a year)and to critics who say it pays miserly wages and sucks life out of town centres. On January 15 th the National Labour Relations Board accused Walmart of sacking and disciplining workers who went on strike in 2012. Walmart says it acted lawfully and claims to promote 160,000 people a year; Mr McMillon"s box-shifting calluses make such claims a bit more convincing. Yet the international business, which he has led since 2009, is not thriving. This year it is expected to account for 28% of sales but it has just achieved 19% of operating income. Walmart has reduced costs in China and Brazil after expanding too fast. Confusing policies on foreign investment in retailing have hampered Walmart"s push into India. Walmart is co-operating with investigations into allegations that executives in Mexico bribed officials; the inquiries have been broadened to the company"s operations in India, Brazil and China. Mr McMillon is not to blame for these setbacks, many of which date from before he took over, but neither has he brought about a turnaround.

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

A study of how older teenagers use social media has found that Facebook is "not just on the slide, it is basically dead and buried" and is being replaced by simpler social networks such as Twitter and Snapchat. Young people now see the site as "uncool" and keep their【C1】______live purely to stay in touch with older【C2】______among whom it remains popular. Daniel Miller, who worked on the research, wrote: "Mostly they feel embarrassed even to be【C3】______with it." This year marked the start of what looks likely to be a【C4】______decline of what had been the most popular social networking sites. Young people are turning away in crowds and【C5】______other social networks instead,【C6】______the worst people of all, their parents, continue to use the service. "Where【C7】______parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to【C8】______about their lives. Parents have worked【C9】______how to use the site and see it【C10】______a way for the family to remain connected【C11】______, the young are moving on to cooler things. What appears to be the most important factor in a young person"s【C12】______to leave Facebook was【C13】______that your mum sends you a friend request." A study observed 16- to 18-year-olds in eight countries for 15 months and found that Facebook use was in decline. Instead, young people are turning to simpler services like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp which Professor Miller【C14】______were "no match" for Facebook【C15】______functionality. "Most of the school children in our survey【C16】______that in many ways, Facebook is technically better than Twitter or Instagram. It is more【C17】______, better for photo albums, organising parties and more【C18】______for observing people"s relationships," said Professor Miller, adding that "efficient isn"t always best" in【C19】______young users. WhatsApp has overtaken Facebook as the number one way to send messages, say the researchers, while Snapchat has gained in popularity in recent months by allowing users to send images which "self-destruct" after a short period on the recipients phone in order to maintain【C20】______.