语法与词汇Credit cards are now accepted in exchange for manygoods and services around the world and in some countries,like the Americans, is used even more widely than cash.

语法与词汇By increasing fluid intake, one can substantiallylower the risk of kidney stones.

语法与词汇In the Pacific Northwest, as climate and topographyvary, so do the species that prevail in the forests.

语法与词汇In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson forcefully decried theindiscriminate use of pesticides.

改错题Directions: Revise the underlined part of each sentence as listed below in accordance with the requirements of standard written English. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.Text DThe earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. We might expect that early artistic efforts would be crude, but the cave paintings of Spain and southern France show a marked degree of skill. So do the naturalistic paintings on slabs of stone excavated in southern Africa. Some of those slabs appear to have been painted as much as 28,000 years ago, which suggests that painting in Africa is as old as painting in Europe. But painting may be even older than that. The early Australians may have painted on the walls of rock shelters and cliff faces at least 30,000 years ago, and maybe as much as 60,000 years ago.The researchers Peter Ucko and Andree Rosenfeld identified three principal locations of paintings in the caves of western Europe: (1) in obviously inhabited rock shelters and cave entrances; (2) in galleries immediately off the inhabited areas of caves; and (3) in the inner reaches of caves, whose difficulty of access has been interpreted by some as a sign that magical-religious activities were performed there.The subjects of the paintings are mostly animals. The paintings rest on bare walls, with no backdrops or environmental trappings. Perhaps, like many contemporary peoples, Upper Paleolithic men and women believed that the drawing of a human image could cause death or injury, and if that were indeed their belief, it might explain why human figures are rarely depicted in cave art. Another explanation for the focus on animals might be that these people sought to improve their luck at hunting. This theory is suggested by evidence of chips in the painted figures, perhaps made by spears thrown at the drawings. But if improving their hunting luck was the chief motivation for the paintings, it is difficult to explain why only a few show signs of having been speared. Perhaps the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals. Cave art seems to have reached a peak toward the end of the Upper Paleolithic period, when the herds of game were decreasing.Upper Paleolithic art was not confined to cave paintings. Many shafts of spears and similar objects were decorated with figures of animals. The anthropologist Alexander Marshack has an interesting interpretation of some of the engravings made during the Upper Paleolithic. He believes that as far back as 30,000 B.C., hunters may have used a system of notation, engraved on bone and stone, to mark phases of the Moon. If this is true, it would mean that Upper Paleolithic people were capable of complex thought and were consciously aware of their environment. In addition to other artworks, figurines representing the human female in exaggerated form have also been found at Upper Paleolithic sites. It has been suggested that these figurines were an ideal type or an expression of a desire for fertility.

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.Text CThe world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: Won’t the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti- competitive force?There’s no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.I believe that the most important forces behind the massive MA wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers’ demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world’s wealth increases.Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the US, when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coining down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. Not long ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won’t multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of defending competition on issues that affect many other nations, as in the US vs. Microsoft case?

阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.To understand the marketing concept, it is only necessary to understand the difference between marketing and selling. Not too many years ago, most industries concentrated primarily on the efficient production of goods, and then relied on “persuasive salesmanship” to move as much of these goods as possible. Such production and selling focuses on the needs of the seller to produce goods and then convert them into money.Marketing, on the other hand, focuses on the wants of consumers. It begins with first analyzing the preferences and demands of consumers and then producing goods that will satisfy them. This eye-on-the-consumer approach is known as the marketing concept, which simply means that instead of trying to sell whatever is easiest to produce or buy for resale, the makers and dealers first endeavor to find out what the consumer wants to buy and then go about making it available for purchase.This concept does not imply that business is benevolent (慈善的) or that consumer satisfaction is given priority over profit in a company. There are always two sides to every business transaction-the firm and the customer-and each must be satisfied before trade occurs. Successful merchants and producers, however, recognize that the surest route to profit is through understanding and catering to customers. A striking example of the importance of catering to the consumer presented itself in mid-1985, when Coca Cola changed the flavor of its drink. The non-acceptance of the new flavor by a significant portion of the public brought about a prompt restoration of the Classic Coke, which was then marketed alongside the new. King Customer ruled!

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.TEXT CThe establishment of the Third Reich influenced events in American history by starting a chain of events which culminated in war between Germany and the United States. The compete destruction of democracy, the persecution of Jews, the war on religion, the cruelty and barbarism of the Nazis, and especially the plans of Germany and her allies, Italy and Japan, for world conquest caused great indignation in this country and brought on fear of another world war.While speaking out against Hitler’s atrocities, the American people generally favored isolationist policies and neutrality.The Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936 prohibited trade with any belligerents or loans to them. In 1937 the President was empowered to declare an arms embargo in wars between nations at his discretion.American opinion began to change somewhat after President Roosevelt’s “quarantine the aggressor” speech at Chicago (1937) in which he severely criticized Hitler’s policies. Germany’s seizure of Austria and the Munich Pact for the partition of Czechoslovakia (1938) also aroused the American people.The conquest of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939 was another rude awakening to the menace of the Third Reich. In August, 1939 came the shock of the Nazi-Soviet Pact and in September the attack on Poland and the outbreak of European war.The United States attempted to maintain neutrality in spite of sympathy for the democracies arrayed against the Third Reich. The Neutrality Act of 1939 repealed the arms embargo and permitted “cash and carry” exports of arms to belligerent nations.A strong national defense program began. A draft act was passed (1940) to strengthen the military services. A Lend-Lease Act (1941) authorized the President to sell, exchange, or lend materials to any country deemed necessary by him for the defense of the United States. Help was given to Britain by exchanging certain overage destroyers for the right to establish American bases in British territory in the Western Hemisphere. In August 1940, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met and issued the Atlantic Charter which proclaimed the kind of a world which should be established after the war.In December 1941, Japan launched the unprovoked attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. Immediately thereafter, Germany declared war on the United States.

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.Text BMore Americans are cohabiting—living together out of wedlock—than ever. Some exports applaud the practice, but others warn playing house does not always lead to marital bliss. At one time in America, living together out of wedlock was scandalous. Unmarried spouses who “shacked up” were said to be “living in sin”. Indeed, cohabitation was illegal throughout the country until about 1970. Today, statistics tell a different tale. The number of unwed couples living together has risen to a new high—more than 4.1 million as of March 1997, according to the Census Bureau. That figure was up from 3.96 million couples the previous year and represents a quantum leap from the 430,000 cohabiting couples counted in 1960.The bureau found that cohabiting is most prevailing in the 24-35 age group, accounting for 1.6 million such couples. Cohabitants claim they live together primarily to solidify their love and commitment to each other. Most intend to marry; only 13% of cohabitants do not anticipate legalizing their relationship. But the reality for many couples is different: Moving in does not lead to “happily ever after”. Forty percent of cohabitants never make it to the altar. Of the 60% who do marry, more than half divorce within 10 years (compared with 30% of married couples who did not live together first).Cohabiting partners are more unfaithful and fight more often than married couples, according to research by the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society. Other studies have come to equally similar conclusions.Still, experts predict the number of cohabiting couples is likely to increase. As the offspring of the baby boomers come of age, they are inclined to defer marriages, as did their parents. This will lead to more cohabitation and nontraditional families. Until people unearth that living together has pitfalls, it won’t wane in popularity. Cohabiting has been portrayed with “careful neutrality” in the media, and Hollywood celebrities who move in and out of each other’s homes set the standard.But Warren Farrell, the San Diego-based author of Why Men Are the Way They Are, argues that living together is a good idea for a short period. “To make the jump from dating, when we put our best foot forward, to being married” —without showing each other the “shadow side of ourselves”—is to treat marriage frivolously, he says.

阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “trash talk (废话)”. The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society’s moral catastrophes (灾难), yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments (困境) of other people’s lives.Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual’s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show’s main target audiences are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life’s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18 to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show’s exploitation.While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world.

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.TEXT ATo understand the marketing concept, it is only necessary to understand the difference between marketing and selling. Not too many years ago, most industries concentrated primarily on the efficient production of goods, and then relied on “persuasive salesmanship” to move as much of these goods as possible. Such production and selling focuses on the needs of the seller to produce goods and then to convert them into money.Marketing, on the other hand focuses on the wants of consumers. It begins with first analyzing the preferences and demands of consumers and then producing goods that will satisfy them. This eye-on-the-consumer approach is known as the marketing concept which simply means that instead of trying to sell whatever is easiest to produce or buy for resale, the makers and dealers first endeavor to find out what the consumer wants to buy and then go about making it available for purchase.This concept does not imply that business is benevolent or that consumer satisfaction is given priority over profit in a company. There are always two sides to every business transaction—the firm and the customer—and each must be satisfied before trade occurs. Successful merchants and producers, however, recognize that the surest route to profit is through understanding and catering to customers. A striking example of the importance of catering to the consumer presented itself in mid-1985, when Coca Cola changed the flavor of its drink. The non-acceptance of the new flavor by a significant portion of the public brought about a prompt restoration of the Classic Coke, which was then marketed alongside the new King Customer ruled!

阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as “all too human,” with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than males.Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan’s and Dr. de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

阅读理解Read the following passages carefully and choose one bestanswer for each question in Passage 1 2and 3, and answerthe questions in passage 4 based on your understanding ofthe passage.(1)Scattered around the globe are more than one hundredregions of volcanic activity known as hot spots (hot spot:a place in the upper mantle of the earth at which hotmagma from the lower mantle upwells to melt through thecrust usually in the interior of a tectonic plate to forma volcanic feature; also: a place in the crust overlying ahot spot) Unlike most volcanoes, hot spots are rarelyfound along the boundaries of the continental and oceanicplates that comprise the Earth’ s crust; most hot spotslie deep in the interior of plates and are anchored deepin the layers of the Earth’ s surface. Hot spots are alsodistinguished from other volcanoes by their lavas, whichcontain greater amounts of alkali metals than do thosefrom volcanoes at plate margins.In some cases, plates moving past hot spots have lefttrails of extinct volcanoes in much the same way that windpassing over a chimney carries off puffs of smoke. Itappears that the Hawaiian Islands were created in such amanner by a single source of lava, welling up from a hotspot, over which the Pacific Ocean plate passed on acourse roughly from the east toward the northwest,carrying off a line of volcanoes of increasing age. Twoother Pacific island chains the Austral Ridge and theTuamotu Ridge parallel the configuration of the Hawaiianchain; they are also aligned from the east toward thenorthwest, with the most recent volcanic activity neartheir eastern terminuses.That the Pacific plate and the other plates are moving isnow beyond dispute; the relative motion of the plates hasbeen reconstructed in detail. However, the relative motionof the plates with respect to the Earth’s interior cannotbe determined easily. Hot spots provide the measuringinstruments for resolving the question of whether twocontinental plates are moving in opposite directions orwhether one is stationary and the other is drifting awayfrom it. The most compelling evidence that a continentalplate is stationary is that, at some hot spots, lavas ofseveral ages are superposed instead of being spread out inchronological sequence. Of course, reconstruction of platemotion from the tracks of hot-spot volcanoes assumes thathot spots are immobile, or nearly so. Several studiessupport such an assumption, including one that has shownthat prominent hot spots throughout the world seem not tohave moved during the past ten million years.Beyond acting as frames of reference, hot spots apparentlyinfluence the geophysical processes that propel the platesacross the globe. When a continental plate comes to restover a hot spot, material welling up from deeper layersforms a broad dome that, as it grows, develops deepfissures. In some instances, the continental plate mayrupture entirely along some of the fissures so that thehot spot initiates the formation of a new ocean. Thus,just as earlier theories have explained the mobility ofthe continental plates, so hot-spot activity may suggest atheory to explain their mutability.

阅读理解Read the following passages carefully and choose one bestanswer for each question in Passage 1 2and 3, and answerthe questions in passage 4 based on your understanding ofthe passage.(2)“They treat us like mules. ” the guy installing my washertells me, his eyes narrowing as he wipes his hands, I hadjust complimented him and his partner on the speed andassurance of their work. He explains that it’ s rare thatcustomers speak to him this way. I know what he’ s talkingabout. My mother was a waitress all her life, in coffeeshops and fast-paced chain restaurants. It was hard work,but she liked it, liked “being among the public, ” as shewould say. But that work had its sting too the customerwho would treat her like a servant or, her biggestcomplaint, like she was not that bright.There’s a lesson here for this political season: thesubtle and not-so-subtle insults that blue-collar andservice workers endure as part of their working lives. Andthose insults often have to do with intelligence.We like to think of the United States as a classlesssociety. The belief in economic mobility is central to theAmerican Dream, and we pride ourselves on our spirit ofegalitarianism. But we also have a troubling streak ofaristocratic bias in our national temperament, and one wayit manifests itself is in the assumptions we make aboutpeople who work with their hands. Working people sensethis bias and react to it when they vote. The commonpolitical wisdom is that hot-button social issues havedriven blue-collar voters rightward. But there are othercultural dynamics at play as well. And Democrats can be asoblivious to these dynamics as Republicans-though theGrand Old Party did appeal to them in St. Paul.Let’ s go back to those two men installing my washer anddryer They do a lot of heavy lifting quickly mine was thefirst of 15 deliveries and efficiently, to avoid injury.Between them there is ongoing communication, verbal antinonverbal, to coordinate the lift, negotiate the tightfit, move in rhythm with each other. And all the while,they are weighing options, making decisions and solvingproblems as when my new dryer didn’ t match up with thegas outlet.Think about what a good waitress has to do in the busyrestaurant: remember orders and monitor them, attend to adynamic, quickly changing environment, prioritize tasksand manage the flow of work, make decisions on the flyThere’s the carpenter using a number of mathematicalconcepts symmetry, proportion. congruence, the propertiesof angles and visualizing these concepts while building acabinet, a flight of stairs, or a pitched roof.The hairstylist’s practice is a mix of technique,“knowledge about the biology of hair. aesthetic judgmentand communication skill. The mechanic, electrician, andplumber are troubleshooters and problem solvers Even theroutinized factory floor calls for working smarts When hasany of this made its way into our political speeches? Fromeither pasty. Even on Labor Day.Last week, the CDP masterfully invoked some old culturalsuspicions: country folk versus, city and east coastversus heartland education But these are symbolic populistgestures not the stuff of the engagement. Judgements aboutintelligence easy great weight in our society, and we havea tendency to make sweeping assessments of people’sintelligence based on the kind of work they do.Political tributes to labor over the next two months willrender the muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight againstbiceps. But few will also celebrate die thought brightbehind the eye, or offer an image that links hand andbrain. It would be fitting in a country with anegalitarian vision of itself to have a truer, richer senseof all that is involved in the wide range of work thatsurrounds and sustains us.Those politicians who can communicate that sense will tapa deep reserve of neglected feeling. And those who canhonor and use work in explaining and personalizing theirpolicies will find a welcome reception.

阅读理解Directions: In this section, there are 4 passages followed by multiple-choice questions. Read the passage and thenwrite ONE best answer for each question on your ANSWER SHEET.Passage FourRicky Gervais’s new film, The Invention of Lying, is about a world where lying doesn’t exist, which means that everybody tells the truth, and everybody believes everything everybody else says. “I’ve always hated you,” a man tells a work colleague. “He seems nice, if a bit fat,” a woman says about her date. It’s all truth, all the time, at whatever the cost. Until one day, when Mark, a down-on-his-luck loser played by Gervais, discovers a thing called “lying” and what it can get him. Within days, Mark is rich, famous, and courting the girl of his dreams. And because nobody knows what “lying” is, he goes on, happily living what has become a complete and utter farce.It’s meant to be funny, but it’s also a more serious commentary on us all. As Americans, we like to think we value the truth. Time and time again, public-opinion polls show that honesty is among the top five characteristics we want in a leader, friend, or lover; the world is full of sad stories about the tragic consequences of betrayal. At the same time, deception is all around us. We are lied to by government officials and public figures to a disturbing degree; many of our social relationships are based on little white lies we tell each other. We deceive our children, only to be deceived by them in return. And the average person says psychologist Robert Feldman, the author of a new book on lying, tells at least three lies in the first 10 minutes of a conversation. “There’s always been a lot of lying,” says Feldman， whose new book, The Liar in Your Life, came out this month. “But I do think we’re seeing a kind of cultural shift where we’re lying more, it’s easier to lie, and in some ways it’s almost more acceptable.”As Paul Ekman, one of Feldman’s longtime lying colleagues and the inspiration behind the Fox IV series “Lie To Me” defines it， a liar is a person who “intends to mislead,” “deliberately,” without being asked to do so by the target of the lie. Which doesn’t mean that all lies are equally toxic: some are simply habitual—“My pleasure!”—while others might be well-meaning white lies. But each, Feldman argues, is harmful, because of the standard it creates. And the more lies we tell, even if they’re little white lies, the more deceptive we and society become.We are a culture of liars, to put it bluntly, with deceit so deeply ingrained in our mind that we hardly even notice we’re engaging in it. Junk e-mail, deceptive advertising, the everyday pleasantries we don’t really mean—“It’s so great to meet you! I love that dress”—have, as Feldman puts it, become “a white noise we’ve learned to neglect.” And Feldman also argues that cheating is more common today than ever. The Josephson Institute, a nonprofit focused on youth ethics, concluded in a 2008 survey of nearly 30,000 high school students that “cheating in school continues to be rampant, and it’s getting worse.” In that survey, 64 percent of students said they’d cheated on a test during the past year, up from 60 percent in 2006. Another recent survey, by Junior Achievement, revealed that more than a third of teens believe lying, cheating, or plagiarizing can be necessary to succeed, while a brand-new study, commissioned by the publishers of Feldman’s book, shows that 18- to 34-year-olds—those of us fully reared in this lying culture—deceive more frequently than the general population.Teaching us to lie is not the purpose of Feldman’s book. His subtitle, in fact, is “the way to truthful relationships.” But if his book teaches us anything, it’s that we should sharpen our skills—and use them with abandon.Liars get what they want. They avoid punishment, and they win others’ affection. Liars make themselves sound smart and intelligent, they attain power over those of us who believe them, and they often use their lies to rise up in the professional world. Many liars have fun doing it. And many more take pride in getting away with it.As Feldman notes, there is an evolutionary basis for deception: in the wild, animals use deception to “play dead” when threatened. But in the modem world, the motives of our lying are more selfish. Research has linked socially successful people to those who are good liars. Students who succeed academically get picked for the best colleges, despite the fact that, as one recent Duke University study found, as many as 90 percent of high-schoolers admit to cheating. Even lying adolescents are more popular among their peers.And all it takes is a quick flip of the remote to see how our public figures fare when they get caught in a lie: Clinton keeps his wife and goes on to become a national hero. Fabricating author James Frey gets a million-dollar book deal. Eliot Spitzer’s wife stands by his side, while “Appalachian hiker” Mark Sanford still gets to keep his post. If everyone else is being rewarded for lying， don’t we need to lie, too, just to keep up?But what’s funny is that even as we admit to being liars, study after study shows that most of us believe we can tell when others are lying to us. And while lying may be easy, spotting a liar is far from it. A nervous sweat or shifty eyes can certainly mean a person’s uncomfortable, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lying. Gaze aversion, meanwhile, has more to do with shyness than actual deception. Even polygraph machines are unreliable. And according to one study, by researcher Bella DePaulo, we’re only able to differentiate a lie from truth only 47 percent of the time, less than if we guessed randomly. “Basically everything we’ve heard about catching a liar is wrong,” says Feldman, who heads the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Ekman, meanwhile, has spent decades studying micro-facial expressions of liars: the split-second eyebrow arch that shows surprise when a spouse asks who was on the phone; the furrowed nose that gives away a hint of disgust when a person says “I love you.” He’s trained everyone from the Secret Service to the TSA, and believes that with close study, it’s possible to identify those tiny emotions. The hard part, of course, is proving them. “A lot of times, it’s easier to believe,” says Feldman. “It takes a lot of cognitive effort to think about whether someone is lying to us.”Which means that more often than not, we’re like the poor dumb souls of The Invention of Lying, hanging on a liar’s every word, no matter how untruthful they may be.

阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.Over the past decade, thousands of patents have been granted for what are called business methods. Amazon.com received one for its “one-click” online payment system. Merrill Lynch got legal protection for an asset allocation strategy. One inventor patented a technique for lifting a box.Now the nation’s top patent court appears completely ready to scale back on business-method patents, which have been controversial ever since they were first authorized 10 years ago. In a move that has intellectual-property lawyers abuzz, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said it would use a particular case to conduct a broad review of business-method patents. In re Bilski, as the case is known, is “a very big deal”, says Dennis D. Crouch of the University of Missouri School of law. It “has the potential to eliminate an entire class of patents.”Curbs on business-method claims would be a dramatic about-face, because it was the Federal Circuit itself that introduced such patents with its 1998 decision in the so-called State Street Bank case, approving a patent on a way of pooling mutual-fund assets. That ruling produced an explosion in business- method patent filings, initially by emerging Internet companies trying to stake out exclusive rights to specific types of online transactions. Later, move established companies raced to add such patents to their files, if only as a defensive move against rivals that might beat them to the punch. In 2005, IBM noted in a court filing that it had been issued more than 300 business- method patents, despite the fact that it questioned the legal basis for granting them. Similarly, some Wall Street investment films armed themselves with patents for financial products, even as they took positions in court cases opposing the practice.The Bilski case involves a claimed patent on a method for hedging risk in the energy market. The Federal Circuit issued an unusual order stating that the case would be heard by all 12 of the court’s judges, rather than a typical panel of three, and that one issue it wants to evaluate is whether it should “reconsider” its State Street Bank ruling.The Federal Circuit’s action comes in the wake of a series of recent decisions by the Supreme Court that has narrowed the scope of protections for patent holders. Last April, for example the justices signaled that too many patents were being upheld for “inventions” that are obvious. The judges on the Federal Circuit are “reacting to the anti-patent trend at the Supreme Court”, says Harold C. Wegner, a patent attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.

阅读理解Read the following passages carefully and choose one bestanswer for each question in Passage 1 2and 3, and answerthe questions in passage 4 based on your understanding ofthe passage.(3)Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or despondent? It turns out that the expression of many emotions may be universal. Smiling is apparently a universal sign of friendliness and approval. Baring the teeth in a hostile way, as noted by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century, may be a universe sign of anger. As the originator of the theory of evolution, Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial expressions would have survival value. For example, facial expressions could signal the approach of enemies (or friends) in the absence of language. Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in a people. Moreover, people in diverse cultures recognize the emotions manifested by the facial expressions. In classic research Paul Ekman took photographs of people exhibiting the emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness. He then asked people around the world to indicate, what emotions were being depicted in them. Those queried ranged from European college students to members of the Fore, a tribe that dwells in the New Guinea highlands. All groups including the Fore, who had almost no contact with Western culture, agreed on the portrayed emotions. The Fore also displayed familiar facial expressions when asked how they would respond if they were the characters in stories that called for basic emotional responses. Ekman and his colleagues more recently obtained similar results in a study of ten cultures in which participants were permitted to report that multiple emotions were shown by facial expressions. The participants generally agreed on which two emotions were being shown and which emotion was more intense. Psychological researchers generally recognize that facial expressions reflect emotional states. In fact various emotional states give rise to certain patterns of electrical activity in the facial muscles and in the brain The facial-feedback hypothesis argues, however, that the causal relationship between emotions and facial expressions can also work in the opposite direction. According to this hypothesis, signals from the facial muscles (“feedback” ) are sent back to emotion centers-of the brain, and so a person’s facial expression can influence that person’s emotional state. Consider Darwin’s words: “The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it. On the other hand, the repression, as far as possible, of all outward signs softens our emotions. ” Can smiling give rise to feelings of good will, for example, and frowning to anger? Psychological research has given rise to some interesting findings concerning the facial-feedback hypothesis. Causing participants in experiments to smile, for example, leads them to report more positive feelings and to rate cartoons (humorous drawings of people or situations) as being more humorous. When they are caused to frown, they rate cartoons as being more aggressive. What are the possible links between facial expressions and emotion? One link is arousal, which is the level of activity or preparedness for activity in an organism. Intense contraction of facial muscles, such as those used in signifying fear, heightens arousal Self-perception of heightened arousal then leads to heightened emotional activity. Other links may involve changes in brain temperature and the release of neurotransmitters (substances that transmit nerve impulses. ) The contraction of facial muscles both influences the internal emotional state and reflects it. Ekman has found that the so-called Duchenne smile, which is characterized by “crow’ s feet” wrinkles around the eyes and a subtle drop in the eye cover fold so that the skin above the eye moves down slightly toward the eyeball, can lead to pleasant feelings.Ekman’ s observation may be relevant to the British expression “keep a stiff upper lip” as are commendation for handling stress. It might be that a “stiff” lip suppresses emotional response as long as the lip is not quivering with fear or tension. But when the emotion that leads to stiffening the lip is more intense, and involves strong muscle tension, facial feedback may heighten emotional response.

阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.Conventional wisdom about conflict seems pretty much cut and dried. Too little conflict breeds apathy (冷漠) and stagnation (呆滞). Too much conflict leads to divisiveness (分裂) and hostility. Moderate levels of conflict, however, can spark creativity and motivate people in a healthy and competitive way.Recent research by Professor Charles R. Schwenk, however, suggests that the optimal level of conflict may be more complex to determine than these simple generalizations. He studied perceptions of conflict among a sample of executives. Some of the executives worked for profit-seeking organizations and others for not-for-profit organizations.Somewhat surprisingly, Schwenk found that opinions about conflict varied systematically as a function of the type of organization. Specifically, managers in not-for-profit organizations strongly believed that conflict was beneficial to their organizations and that it promoted higher quality decision making than might be achieved in the absence of conflict.Managers of for-profit organizations saw a different picture. They believed that conflict generally was damaging and usually led to poor-quality decision making in their organizations. Schwenk interpreted these results in terms of the criteria for effective decision making suggested by the executives. In the profit-seeking organizations, decision-making effectiveness was most often assessed in financial terms. The executives believed that consensus rather than conflict enhanced financial indicators.In the not-for-profit organizations, decision-making effectiveness was defined from the perspective of satisfying constituents. Given the complexities and ambiguities associated with satisfying many diverse constituents executives perceived that conflict led to more considered and acceptable decisions.

阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.Imagine eating everything delicious you want-with none of the fat. Thatwould be great, wouldn’t it?New “fake fat” products appeared on store shelves in the United States recently, but not everyone is happy about it. Makers of the products, which contain a compound called olestra, say food manufacturers can now eliminate fat from certain foods. Critics, however, say the new compound can rob the body of essential vitamins and nutrients (营养物) and can also cause unpleasant side effects in some people. So it’s up to decide whether the new fat-free products taste good enough to keep eating.Chemists discovered olestra in the late 1960s, when they were searching for a fat that could be digested by infants more easily. Instead of finding the desired fat, the researchers created a fat that can’t be digested at all.Normally, special chemicals in the intestines (肠) “grab” molecules of regular fat and break them down so they can be used by the body. A molecule of regular fat is made up of three molecules of substances called fatty acids.The fatty acids are absorbed by the intestines and bring with them the essential vitamins A, D, E, and K. When fat molecules are present in the intestines with any of those vitamins, the vitamins attach to the molecules and are carried into the bloodstream.Olestra, which is made from six to eight molecules of fatty acids, is too large for the intestines to absorb. It just slides through the intestines without being broken down. Manufacturers say it’s that ability to slide unchanged through the intestines that makes olestra so valuable as a fat substitute. It provides consumers with the taste of regular fat without any bad effects on the body. But critics say olestra can prevent vitamins A, D, E, and K from being absorbed. It can also prevent the absorption of carotenoids (类胡萝卜素), compounds that may reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, etc.Manufacturers are adding vitamins A, D, E, and K as well as carotenoids to their products now. Even so, some nutritionists are still concerned that people might eat unlimited amounts of food made with the fat substitute without worrying about how many calories they are consuming.