BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

Suppose you have invited Laura to your birthday tea party. But there is some emergency and you have to cancel the party. Write her a note to 1) cancel the invitation, and 2) explain why. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead.

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

High-quality customer service is preached by many, but actually keeping customers happy is easier said than done. Shoppers seldom complain to the manager or owner of a retail store, but instead will alert their friends, relatives, co-workers, strangers—and anyone who will listen. Store managers are often the last to hear complaints, and often find out only when their regular customers decide to frequent their competitors, according to a study jointly conducted by Verde group and Wharton school. "Storytelling hurts retailers and entertains consumers," said Paula Courtney, President of the Verde group. "The store loses the customer, but the shopper must also find a replacement. On average, every unhappy customer will complain to at least four others, and will no longer visit the specific store. For every dissatisfied customer, a store will lose up to three more due to negative reviews. The resulting "snowball effect" can be disastrous to retailers. According to the research, shoppers who purchased clothing encountered the most problems.Ranked second and third were grocery and electronics customers. The most common complaints include filled parking lots, cluttered (塞满了的) shelves, over-located racks, out-of-stock items, long check-out lines, and rude salespeople. During peak shopping hours, some retailers solved the parking problems by getting moonlighting (业余兼职的) local police to work as parking attendants. Some hired flag wavers to direct customers to empty parking spaces. This guidance eliminated the need for customers to circle the parking lot endlessly, and avoided confrontation between those eyeing the same parking space. Retailers can relieve the headaches by redesigning store layouts, pre-stocking sales items, hiring speedy and experienced cashiers, and having sales representatives on hand to answer questions. Most importantly, salespeople should be diplomatic and polite with angry customers. "Retailers who're responsive and friendly are more likely to smooth over issues than those who aren't so friendly," said Professor Stephen Hoch. "Maybe something as simple as a greeter at the store entrance would help. " Customers can also improve future shopping experiences by filling complaints to the retailer, instead of complaining to the rest of the world. Retailers are hard-pressed to improve when they have no idea what is wrong.

Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Youshould1)describethechartand2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150wordsontheANSWERSHEET.(15points)

Olivia Pedersen thought the Nissan Leaf parked outside her favourite lunch spot near Emory University, must be hers. But she could not open the door. Nor could she open the door of the identical Leaf behind it. Cautiously, she tried the third Leaf in line and happily drove away. More than 14,000 electric vehicles are now registered in Georgia; California is the only state with more. But the juicy state incentives for buying them are coming under attack. Residents can claim an income-tax credit for 20% of the cost of leasing or purchasing an electric vehicle, up to $ 5,000. Combined with a possible federal tax incentive worth $ 7,500,savvy Georgians are driving all the way to the bank in nearly-free electric cars. Nissan sells more of its Leaf models in Atlanta than in any other city, according to Don Francis from Georgia, which promotes the use of cars like these. Such trends motivated Chuck Martin, a representative in Georgia's House, to sponsor a bill to end state incentives for electric vehicles. He argues that the income-tax credit costs too much—about $ 13. 6m in 2013—and that only urban types benefit from these sorts of cars. Mr Martin's bill was voted down in committee in February, but seems to be still breathing. Another House bill, mostly to finance transport projects, would reduce the credits; it is now before the Senate. Fans of electric vehicles say Georgia now leads the country in clean transport. Local power companies have helped by offering off-peak prices of 1. 3 cents per kilowatt hour for charging the cars at night. And the sales tax levied on this power stays in the state, whereas cash spent on petrol largely goes elsewhere, says Jeff Cohen, founder of the Atlanta Electric Vehicle Development Coalition. Cutting the credits altogether might also harm Georgia in other ways. A study by Keybridge Public Policy Economics, a consultancy, says the state could lose $ 252m by 2030 if they disappear and people buy gas-guzzlers instead. That is because drivers will spend $ 714m on petrol to get around (in contrast with the $ 261m they would have paid in electricity bills) , and will no longer fritter away their savings from the federal electric-vehicle tax credit in Georgia's shops. But the state's incentives may be safe in the legislature after all; the president of the Senate drives an electric car himself.

EmerginginthelateSixtiesandreachingapeakintheSeventies,LandArtwasoneofarangeofnewforms,includingBodyArt,PerformanceArt,ActionArtandInstallationArt,whichpushedartbeyondthetraditionalconfinesofthestudioandgallery.Ratherthanportrayinglandscape,landartistsusedthephysicalsubstanceofthelanditselfastheirmedium.ThemessageofthissurveyofBritishlandart—themostcomprehensivetodate—isthattheBritishvariant,typifiedbyLong'spiece,wasnotonlymoredomesticallyscaled,butalotquirkierthanitsAmericancounterpart.Indeed,whileyoumightassumethatanexhibitionofLandArtwouldconsistonlyofrecordsofworksratherthantheworksthemselves,Long'sphotographofhisworkisthework.Sincehis"action"isinthepastthephotographisitssoleembodiment.Thatmightseemratheranobscurepoint,butitsetsthetoneforanexhibitionthatcontainsalotofblack-and-whitephotographsandrelativelyfewnaturalobjects.LongisBritain'sbest-knownLandArtistandhisStoneCircle,aperfectringofpurplishrocksfromPortisheadbeachlaidoutonthegalleryfloor,representstheelegant,rarefiedsideoftheform.TheBoyleFamily,ontheotherhand,standforitsdirty,urbanaspect.ComprisingartistsMarkBoyleandJoanHillsandtheirchildren,theyrecreatedrandomsectionsoftheBritishlandscapeongallerywalls.TheirOlafStreetStudy,asquareofbrick-strewnwasteground,isoneofthefewworksheretoembracethemundanitythatcharacterisesmostofourexperienceofthelandscapemostofthetime.Parksfeature,particularlyintheearlierworks,suchasJohnHilliard'sveryfunnyAcrossthePark,inwhichalong-hairedstrollerisvariouslysmiledatbyaprettygirlandunwittinglyassaultedinasequenceofimagesthatturnouttobedifferentpartsofthesamephotograph.GenerallyhoweverBritishlandartistspreferredtogetawayfromtowns,gravitatingtowardslandscapesthataretraditionallyconsideredbeautifulsuchastheLakeDistrictortheWiltshireDowns.Whileitprobablywasn'tapparentatthetime,muchofthisworkispermeatedbyaspiritofromanticescapismthatthelikesofWordsworthwouldhavereadilyunderstood.DerekJarman'syellow-tintedfilmTowardsAvebury,acollectionoflong,mostlystillshotsoftheWiltshirelandscape,evokesatraditionofEnglishlandscapepaintingstretchingfromSamuelPalmertoPaulNash.InthecaseofHamishFulton,youcan'thelpfeelingthattheScottishartisthassimplyfoundawayofmakinghisloveofwalkingpay.Atypicalwork,suchasSevenDays,consistsofasinglebeautifulblack-and-whitephotographtakenonanepicwalk,withthemileageandnumberofdaystakenlistedbeneath.BritishLandArtasshowninthiswellselected,butrelativelymodestlyscaledexhibitionwasn'taboutimposingonthelandscape,moreakindoflandscape-orientatedlightconceptualartcreatedpassingthrough.Ithaditsoriginsinthegreatoutdoors,buttheresultswereasgallery-boundasthepaintingsofTurnerandConstable.

The January fashion show, called FutureFashion, exemplified how far green design has come. Organized by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, the show inspired many top designers to work with sustainable fabrics for the first time. Several have since made pledges to include organic fabrics in their lines. The designers who undertake green fashion still face many challenges. Scott Hahn, cofounder with Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, which uses all-organic cotton, says high-quality sustainable materials can still be tough to find. "Most designers with existing labels are finding there aren't comparable fabrics that can just replace what you're doing and what your customers are used to," he says. For example, organic cotton and non-organic cotton are virtually indistinguishable once woven into a dress. But some popular synthetics, like stretch nylon, still have few eco-friendly equivalents. Those who do make the switch are finding they have more support. Last year the influential trade show Designers & Agents stopped charging its participation fee for young green entrepreneurs who attend its two springtime shows in Los Angeles and New York and gave special recognition to designers whose collections are at least 25% sustainable. It now counts more than 50 green designers, up from fewer than a dozen two years ago. This week Wal-Mart is set to announce a major initiative aimed at helping cotton farmers go organic : it will buy transitional (过渡性的) cotton at higher prices, thus helping to expand the supply of a key sustainable material. "Mainstream is about to occur," says Hahn. Some analysts are less sure. Among consumers, only 18% are even aware that ecofashion exists, up from 6% four years ago. Natalie Hormilla, a fashion writer, is an example of the unconverted consumer. When asked if she owned any sustainable clothes, she replied: "Not that I'm aware of." Like most consumers, she finds little time to shop, and when she does, she's on the hunt for "cute stuff that isn't too expensive." By her own admission, green just isn't yet on her mind. But—thanks to the combined efforts of designers, retailers and suppliers—one day it will be.

After visiting Widener University and learning about its program requiring 300 hours of community service in the surrounding poor city of Chester, Pennsylvania, Anna Miller told her father that she would not go anywhere else. Miller was looking for a college experience that was【C1】______on both meaning and action. "I was especially【C2】______to this program because it is much easier to make a lasting change in a community when you have the【C3】______of the administration of the school," said the 20-year-old from East Prospect, Pennsylvania. Widener is not【C4】______in its creative curriculum: a number of schools now include community service as part of class work During the 1960s and 1970s, universities were often the【C5】______of student protests, characterized as ivory-tower institutions【C6】______the greater problems in society.【C7】______these days, many universities are【C8】______the forefront of encouraging students to【C9】______social change. "It"s very【C10】______, at all different kinds of colleges, from small liberal-arts colleges to big universities and community colleges," says Debra Humphreys, a spokesperson for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. According to a 2009【C11】______by the AACU, at least 68 percent of its members are including credit-bearing courses that【C12】______service learning. Colleges and universities are【C13】______community service with every type of subject. At the University of Pennsylvania, students can take an environmental-studies class where they identify sources of lead, gather samples of soil, dust, and paint, and map the risk of lead【C14】______in surrounding West Philadelphia areas. Last year【C15】______1,800 students elected to take at least one of the 60 "academically based community service" courses offered through the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. At Bryn Mawr College, math professor Victor Don-nay links math to projects【C16】______sustainability, like the savings from eliminating dining trays in dorm cafeterias. It"s【C17】______to see how math can be used to make a difference in the world, Donnay says. "As they did the projects, the【C18】______of effort they put in and their【C19】______for figuring out these problems was much higher than in a【C20】______class."

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

Many parents admit that there is the generation gap between them and their children. How can we eliminate the gap? In this section, you are asked to write an essay on one way to eliminate the generation gap. You can provide specific reasons and examples to support your idea. You should write at least 150 words.

Everyone knows how to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice. But what about how to get into the nation"s most honorable university? For【C1】______high-school students today, the【C2】______for getting into that school can seem just as simple. The conventional wisdom is that keeping your head down【C3】______the single-minded pursuit of qualifications is the path to【C4】______It makes every election for every tiny organization a heated battle and makes classes almost a second choice. Every hour not spent in class is spent building a【C5】______resume: student council, National Honor Society, captaining the football teams, and joining a dozen other student organizations. Of course, that isn"t to say that a 4.0 of Advanced placement classes isn"t still【C6】______. Do all of that【C7】______you"ll get into Harvard, right? Well... "We could fill our class twice over with those students," Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust said. That means admissions officers rely on things like interesting essays or particularly unusual recommendations to decide who【C8】______the 5.9 percent of candidates who get in. Faust"s top tip for【C9】______a Harvard man or woman: "Make your children interesting! " For parents and students【C10】______, that"s both good news and bad news. The bad news is that of course it"s much easier to say that than to actually make it happen, 【C11】______Faust recommended encouraging children to【C12】______their passions as a way to develop an interesting personality. It"s much easier to complete a checklist, however【C13】______, than to actually be interesting. 【C14】______the good news is that when colleges use this set of【C15】______, kids can focus on shaping their teenage years in a way that isn"t just about trying to【C16】______resume line after resume line, and【C17】______focus on a more whole sense of self That seems like a far more【C18】______way to move through high school than spreading oneself too thin trying to get a lot of positions one can"t really ever【C19】______That encourages an inferior approach to learning and society that is just the【C20】______of what the liberal arts have traditionally tried to encourage.

Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in World War II and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated (使着迷) with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the "great game" of espionage—spying as a "profession". These days the Net, which has already re-made such everyday pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan's vocation as well. The latest revolution isn't simply a matter of gentlemen reading other gentlemen's e-mail. That kind of electronic spying has been going on for decades. In the past three or four years, the World Wide Web has given birth to a whole industry of point-and-click spying. The spooks (间谍) call it "open-source intelligence" , and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly influential. In 1995 the CIA held a contest to see who could compile the most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin, was a tiny Virginia company called Open Source Solutions, whose clear advantage was its mastery of the electronic world. Among the firms making the biggest splash in this new world is Straitford, Inc., a private intelligence-analysis firm based in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the results of spying (covering nations from Chile to Russia) to corporations like energy-services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions are available online at www. straitford. com. Straiford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster's dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine. "As soon as that report runs, we'll suddenly get 500 new Internet sign-ups from Ukraine," says Friedman, a former political science professor. "And we'll hear back from some of them." Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That's where Straitford earns its keep. Friedman relies on a lean staff of 20 in Austin. Several of his staff members have military-intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firm's outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford's briefs don't sound like the usual Washington back-and-forthing, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.

Suppose you want to apply for a part-time job in your university as a teaching assistant. Write a self-recommendation letter to 1) apply for the job, and 2) earn a chance of an interview for yourself. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use ''Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.

[A] Breaking all constraints[B] Timeline to execution[C] The purpose of the decision[D] Known unknowns and unknown unknowns[E] Wrong is never permanent[F] Resource accessibility[G] Playing to self-interest Leadership in any capacity requires a laser-like focus, complete awareness of the problem set, and a willingness to "move the needle" when faced with uncertainty. Leaders must, at any point, be willing to make a split-second decision with potentially long-lasting and profound impacts. Here are five criteria to consider when making your next big decision: 【R1】______ In the military, there was (and still is) a pecking order of priority upon which decisions are based. The mission always came first, followed by what would serve the team, and finally, what would serve the individual. The individual always comes last because he or she was always the smallest link in the organizational chain. Playing to self-interest serves little purpose, and that's not what a team or an organization is about. 【R2】______ Well, "never" is a strong word, but you get the idea. I' ve said before that failure is only determined by where you choose to stop, and it also depends on how that particular problem is perceived. The higher one ascends within an organization. For example, the same problem that appears tricky at one level may not necessarily be the right one to solve for at another. Seek as many viewpoints as you can to enhance your understanding of the situation. 【R3】______ There are internal and external influences that shape the feasibility of execution along a given timeline. Internal influences refer to the competency of you and your team to execute the decision in the given time, whereas external influences signify the driving forces that impact the deadline that you have no control over, such as weather, the economy or market demand. You want to ask yourself two questions. First, "Is now the right time to decide?" If the answer is yes, then your next question is, "Am I capable of executing the decision?" If the answer is no then ask "why?" 【R4】______ These are the constraints surrounding the execution of your decisions. A known unknown is when you realize a specific intangible exists but can't quantify how much, such as traffic. For instance, you're aware that rush hour in Los Angeles never really has an end point, so it could take you from 20 minutes to two hours to travel from A to B. The point is, you know that uncertainty exists but don't know how much. Unknown unknowns are when Murphy likes to throw another wrench in the mix that you simply can't plan for, such as a vehicle accident or engine breakdown. Try to identify all constraints as best you can so you know how to align them towards the purpose of your decision. 【R5】______ If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. The result of any effort will depend in part on the resources used to execute it, so be sure to identify not only the primary resources available but also secondary ones, too. Every decision should have a contingency plan for when those unknown unknowns arise and deem your primary course of action obsolete. Decision-making can paralyze you if you're not prepared. Tackle your next major dilemma using the aforementioned considerations and feel better about the decisions you come to.

Writeanessaybasedonthepiechart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthechart,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.

Going hungry is a major contributor to ill health, particularly among children, and a new report reveals how long-lasting the damage can be. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the University of Calgary performed the first longterm study on the【C1】______of hunger on general health,【C2】______children from birth to 21 years. Most studies to date have【C3】______only snapshots of childhood health,【C4】______the short-term impact of hunger【C5】______a period of time. In the new analysis, the scientists found that children who went hungry at least once in their lives were 2i-times more likely to have【C6】______overall health 10 to 15 years later, compared with those who never had to【C7】______food. "Our research shows that hunger and food insecurity are really damaging【C8】______children's life chances," says lead author Sharon Kirkpatrick, a visiting fellow at NCI. The study supports earlier findings that【C9】______episodes of hunger are more likely to cause ill health than an isolated experience of starvation: children in Kirkpatrick's analysis who experienced two or more periods of hunger were more than four times as likely to report ill health than those who never went hungry. The relationship, she says, remained strong even after the team accounted【C10】______other factors that could influence health, such as age, sex and household characteristics like income. 【C11】______one experience of hunger can have lasting effects on a child's health, a fact that is especially troubling in light of the sobering rise in U.S. households that were【C12】______to do without food in 2008: 15% of American families reported some【C13】______in the amount or quality of food they consumed,【C14】______from 11% the previous year. 15 this study did not probe into the【C16】______mechanism by which hunger affects long-term health, Kirkpatrick【C17】______that both psychological and physiological factors may be at work. Aside from the obvious negative impact that missing key nutrients and calories can have on growth and development, she says, the psychological【C18】______of food insecurity—not being able to afford a【C19】______and high-quality source of food—can be【C20】______to youngsters as well.

Some of your belongings have been harmed during transit by a home-moving company. Write the company a letter to 1) file a claim, and 2) specify the items damaged. 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.

The immune system is equal in complexity to the combined intricacies of the brain and nervous system. The success of the immune system in defending the body relies on a dynamic regulatory communications network consisting of millions and millions of cells. Organized into sets and subsets, these cells pass information back and forth like clouds of bees swarming around a hive. The result is a sensitive system of checks and balances that produces an immune response that is prompt, appropriate, effective, and self-limiting. At the heart of the immune system is the ability to distinguish between self and non-self. When immune defenders encounter cells or organisms carrying foreign or non-self molecules, the immune troops move quickly to eliminate the intruders. Virtually every body cell carries distinctive molecules that identify it as self. The body's immune defenses do not normally attack tissues that carry a self-marker. Rather, immune cells and other body cells coexist peaceably in a state known as self-tolerance. When a normally functioning immune system attacks a non-self molecule, the system has the ability to remember the specifics of the foreign body. Upon subsequent encounters with the same species of molecules, the immune system reacts accordingly. With the possible exception of antibodies passed during lactation, this so-called immune system memory is not inherited. Despite the occurrence of a virus in your family, your immune system must learn from experience with the many millions of distinctive non-self molecules in the sea of microbes in which we live. Learning entails producing the appropriate molecules and cells to match up with and counteract each non-self invader. Any substance capable of triggering an immune response is called an antigen. Antigens are not to be confused with allergens, which are most often harmless substances ( such as ragweed pollen or cat hair) that provoke the immune system to set off the inappropriate and harmful response known as allergy. An antigen can be a virus, a bacterium, a fungus, a parasite, or even a portion or product of one of these organisms. Tissues or cells from another individual ( except an identical twin, whose cells carry identical selfmarkers) also act as antigens; because the immune system recognizes transplanted tissues as foreign, it rejects them. The body will even reject nourishing proteins unless they are first broken down by the digestive system into their primary, non-antigenic building blocks. An antigen announces its foreignness by means of intricate and characteristic shapes called epitopes, which protrude from its surface. Most antigens, even the simplest microbes, carry several different kinds of epitopes on their surface; some may even carry several hundred. Some epitopes will be more effective than others at stimulating an immune response. Only in abnormal situations does the immune system wrongly identify self as non-self and execute a misdirected immune attack. The result can be a so-called autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosis. The painful side effects of these diseases are caused by a person's immune system actually attacking itself.