问答题1979年1月,邓小平应邀访美。美国总统卡特回忆说,邓小平访美是他任总统职务期间最为愉快的经历之一。他说他和邓小平的会谈既愉快又卓有成效。他说邓小平很有魅力,富有幽默感,给人留下了很好的印象。他发现中国人懂得如何表达对自己国家的自豪,却又不显得傲慢。1月29日,卡特总统有如下的日记:我们在肯尼迪中心观看了一场很轻松的演出。后来我和邓、邓的夫人卓琳、罗莎琳以及艾米一起登台与演员们见面。当邓拥抱美国演员,特别是拥抱演唱中国歌曲的小演员时,流露出真诚的感情。他亲吻了许多儿童,后来记者们报道说不少观众甚至感动得流泪了。即使那些反对中美关系正常化的参议员,在观看这次演出之后,也承认他们输了。他们说他们没办法投票反对儿童唱中国歌曲。 卡特总统还描述了另一件事:“我们在最后一个会议上签署了有关领事馆、贸易以及科学、技术、文化交流等方面的协定。那时与会的有人问邓:‘我们决定关系正常化时,中国有反对的人吗?’大家都屏住呼吸,等着邓小平的回答。邓说:‘有的。’他停了一会儿又说:‘中国有一个省强烈反对。那就是台湾。’”
问答题In the latest round of credit-card reforms, issuers and retailers are both playing the consumer-friendly angle. Currently lawmakers are debating whether to cut interchange fees, the tab that merchants pay to card issuers each time a customer uses plastic. While retailers claim they would pass the savings on to shoppers in the form of lower prices, card companies argue the legislation will make credit less convenient and more costly--and they may be right. Merchants have long complained about interchange fees. They say the costs, which amount to roughly 1.6% of every transaction, erode already razor-thin margins. Last year retailers, the main supporters of three bills now working their way through Congress, forked over an estimated $ 48 billion in card fees. "We can't keep absorbing these fees," Kathy Miller, a grocery store owner in Elmore, Vt. , testified at a congressional hearing in early October. In their quest to win over lawmakers, retailers maintain consumers won't get hurt--and may actually benefit. "Our market is extraordinarily competitive," says Mallory B. Duncan, general counsel of the National Retail Federation, a trade group. "If costs go down, that tends to drive down prices. " That's not what happened in Australia, though. In 2003 the country's regulators cut the average interchange fee to around 0.5 % of the total bill, from 1%. But most retailers never dropped their prices, and credit-card issuers jacked up borrowers' fees to make up for the lost revenue, according to a report by CRA International, a consultancy. After the regulation was passed, the annual fee paid by cardholders rose by 22%, to an average of $ 25.65. Annual fees on rewards cards jumped by as much as 77% since issuers' profits took a bigger hit. Australian card companies generally levied a higher interchange fee on rewards cards to cover the added cost of the perk--as they do in the U.S. Analysts worry that retailers and card issuers in the States would respond in much the same way. Already U.S. lenders have been raising rates and tacking on new charges for borrowers following a ban earlier this year from Congress on certain practices, including late-payment penalties. "When the banks have a major source of revenue eliminated, they need to raise [other fees] to make up for that," says David S. Evans, a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. Any new rules could make it less convenient for consumers to opt for credit over cash. As part of the proposals, lawmakers are considering whether to let retailers set a minimum payment for purchases with plastic; they now risk paying a hefty fine for doing so. If such changes are made, customers won't be able to pull out their cards all the time. Merchants may also have the option of rejecting a specific card, like a reward card, if they think the interchange fees are too high. Currently retailers must accept all products under a single brand such as Visa. "Consumers want to be able to use their card for any kind of purchase," says Shawn Miles, MasterCard World wide's head of global public policy. The legislation is "anti-consumer. " Such a defense may work A report by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, due out by Now. 19, is weighing the potential impact of proposed rules on the care-carrying masses. If the GAO finds that only merchants benefit from lower interchange fees, card companies may win. Says Brian Gardner, a vice-president at research firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "If the report comes out and says there is little evidence that [the benefits] would be passed on to consumers, then I think the oxygen gets sucked out of this thing. /1.What are interchange fees? Why does the author say "issuers and retailers are both playing the consumer-friendly angle" (Para. 1) ?
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On Apr. 27, the Dean of Duke's business school had the
unfortunate task of announcing that nearly 10% of the Class of 2008 had been
caught cheating on a take-home final exam. The scandal, which has cast yet
another pall over the leafy, Gothic campus, is already going down as the biggest
episode of alleged student deception in the business school's history.
Almost immediately, the questions started swirling. The accused MBAs were,
on average, 29 years old. They were the cut-and-paste generation, the champions
of Linux. Before going to the business school, they worked in corporations for
an average of six years. They did so at a time when their bosses were trumpeting
the brave new world of open source, where one's ability to aggregate (or rip
off) other people's intellectual property was touted as a crucial competitive
advantage. It's easy to imagine the explanations these MBAs, who
are mulling an appeal, might come up with. Teaming up on a take-home exam:
That's not academic fraud, it's postmodern learning, wiki style. Text-messaging
exam answers or downloading essays onto iPods: That's simply a wise use of
technology. One can understand the confusion. This is a
generation that came of age nabbing music off Napster and watching bootlegged
Hollywood blockbusters in their dorm rooms. "What do you mean?" you can almost
hear them saying. "We're not supposed to share?" That's not to
say that university administrators should ignore unethical behavior, if it in
fact occurred. But in this wired world, maybe the very notion of what
constitutes cheating has to be reevaluated. The scandal at Duke points to how
much the world has changed, and how academia and corporations are confused about
it all, sending split messages. We're told it's all about
teamwork and shared information. But then we' re graded and ranked as
individuals. We assess everybody as single entities. But then we plop them into
an interdependent world and tell them their success hinges on creative
collaboration. The new culture of shared information is vastly
different from the old, where hoarding information was power. But professors—and
bosses, for that matter—need to be able to test individual ability. For all the
talk about workforce teamwork, there are plenty of times when a person is on his
or her own, arguing a case, preparing a profit and loss statement, or writing a
research report. Still, many believe that a rethinking of the
assessment process is in store. The Stanford University Design School, for
example, is so collaborative that "it would be impossible to cheat," says
D-school professor Robert I. Sutton. "If you found somebody to help you write an
exam, in our view that's a sign of an inventive person who gets stuff done. If
you found someone to do work for free who was committed to open source, we'd
say, 'Wow, that was smart.' One group of students got the police to help them
with a school project to build a roundabout where there were a lot of bike
accidents. Is that cheating?" That's food for thought at a time
when learning is becoming more and more of a social process embedded in a larger
network. This is in no way a pass on those who consciously break the rules. With
countries aping American business practices, a backlash against an ethically
rudderless culture can't happen soon enough. But the saga at Duke raises
an interesting question. In the age of Twitter, a social network that keeps
users in constant streaming contact with one another, what is cheating?
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问答题What does the author mean by "Starbucks is distinctly second division compared with big leaguers like, say, McDonald's"? According to Mr. Shultz, what is the reason for that?
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问答题祖国和平统一,乃千秋功业。台湾终必回归祖国,早日解决对各方有利。台湾同胞可安居乐业,两岸各族人民可解骨肉分离之痛,在台诸前辈及大陆去台人员亦可各得其所,且有利于亚太地区局势稳定和世界和平。 当今国际风云变幻莫测,台湾上下众议纷纭。岁月不居,来日苦短,夜长梦多,时不我与。试为贵党计,如能依时顺势,负起历史责任,毅然和谈,达成国家统一,则两党长期共存,互相监督,共图振兴中华之大业。
问答题在改革开放的伟大实践中,我们深刻认识到。在当今世界日趋激烈的竞争中,一个国家、一个民族要发展起来,就必须与时俱进、改革开放、着力发展、以人为本、促进和谐。
世界上没有放之四海而皆准的发展道路和发展模式,也没有一成不变的发展道路和发展模式,必须适应国内外形势的新变化、顺应人民过上更好生活的新期待,结合自身实际、结合时代条 件变化不断探索和完善适合本国情况的发展道路和发展模式,不断增加全社会的生机活力,真正做到与时代发展同步伐、与人民群众共命运。
历史是继续前进的基础,也是开创未来的启示。中国仍然是世界上最大的发展中国家,中国基本实现现代化,实现全体中国人民共同富裕,还有很长的路要走。
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问答题Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear 5
sentences in English. You will hear the sentences ONLY ONCE.
After you have heard each sentence, translate it into Chinese and write your
version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER
BOOKLET.
问答题The President of the United States of America has more power than any other president in the democratic world—except the French president. It is he who formulates foreign policy and prepares laws for the home front. He is leader of the nation and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He represents the USA and, since the USA is a superpower, the eyes of the whole world are on him. The fate of the world is in his hands, or so the world believes, and one careless, ill-prepared speech could precipitate a crisis.
Actually, a great deal of the President"s power is controlled by Congress. It is the Congress that declares war, not the President. Unlike the Prime Minister of Great Britain, or of Germany, he can make a treaty with a foreign power. But this treaty must be debated and agreed by Congress before it comes into force. The same control applies to laws at home. Congress has on several occasions refused to ratify treaties or give approval to laws proposed by the President.
Some Americans have the feeling that idealism has gone out of politics and that personal ambition and money have taken place. The election campaign for the Presidency is unique in the amount of money poured into it. The wooing of voters lasts for months.
But before the campaign for the election of the President can begin, each political party has to choose its candidate for the Presidency. This can lead to some very close contests. Many aspiring to be elected as the party candidate employ top public relations and advertising men, who invent clever catch phrases and set about "selling" their man. There are whistle stop tours by train, by plane, by car. The candidate delivers countless speeches and shakes countless hands.
Big money is necessary to support a presidential candidate"s campaign, and the candidate himself must be rich enough to pay his share. An attractive wife is an advantage, too. Money is also needed to become the governor of a state, or a successful Senator, or members of the House of Representatives. Yet from this small group many excellent men have become President, and the same is true of members of Congress.
It is unlikely that the President could ever become a dictator. Congress, the press and the people between them rule out such a possibility.
Perhaps the most efficient safeguard of democracy is the Supreme Court, for one of its objects is to protect the individual against the government. It has the authority to cancel a law which it considers violates the Constitution. The court sits for at least four days a week, and any individual who has a grievance against the government can apply to it for help.
问答题 Questions 7~10 U.S. consumer
prices climbed faster than expected in May, further fanning investor fears over
inflation. Stock markets around the world have cracked sharply lower the past
few weeks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing all the ground it had
gained so far this year. Japan's stock market is down 11% on the year; gold has
had its biggest slide in a decade and a half; and many emerging markets are
wobbling. After Wednesday's Consumer Price Index report from the Labor
Department, which showed a 0.4 percent increase in prices for May (core
inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3 percent), the stock market
made a comeback. But with future interest rate hikes now starting to be priced
into the market, investor fears that central bankers around the world will go
overboard and continue to drive rates higher is set to further spook markets.
This is no trading correction that investors have to absorb. The real risk of a
jarring bear market has emerged. But while the trauma that
inflation created for investors in the 1970s is still close to the surface, the
sudden frenzy is misplaced. Powerful forces in the world economy continue to
keep prices largely in check. Over the past decade, inflation
has been a minor threat compared with brutal deflationary shocks. They started
with the collapse of the Mexican peso in the mid-1990s. In 1997, much of eastern
Asia's flourishing economy was leveled. Next were Russia, Turkey and Argentina;
Brazil teetered on the brink. By early 2001, Silicon Valley, the pride of the U.
S. economy, was crashing, while entire sectors of the so-called New Economy
disintegrated. The tech wreck may be over, but it has left a
legacy of low prices. Tech companies had to dump on the market everything from
fiberoptic networks to computer chips, as desperate investors struggled to raise
cash. That slashed telecommunication costs at the very moment that emerging
markets were producing a skilled and hungry generation of information workers.
Result? The offshore outsourcing revolution and downward pressure on
global production costs that keeps inflation under control. Equally
powerful are the ultra-low-cost emerging-market manufacturing bases, led by
China. With more than 1 billion people set to enter the urban labor markets of
China, India, Brazil and Indonesia in the next 20 years, all those pressures on
prices will only intensify. More immediate forces are
also at work to keep prices from surging. Despite some wishful thinking, growth
in Europe is slowing, not accelerating. A large part of U. S. growth has been
driven by booming real estate prices. But in the past two years, the Fed has
increased rates 16 times, so real estate-driven consumption is yesterday's news.
Tomorrow's story will be the sharp fall in U. S. growth as consumers face
higher mortgage costs. That dynamic could become particularly nasty, given
the record level of U. S. household debt, government deficit and unequaled
current-account shortfall. Investors are often caught
fiat-footed when markets slide. In 2001~2002, deflation was the fear of the day,
but few investors at the time saw the opportunity in commodities, which were
going for a fraction of today's prices. Today investors are obsessed with
inflation, while government and top-tier corporate bonds are shunned.
That should be telling us something. What is it? In the past few years,
the central banks of Japan, the U.S. and Europe have cut interest rates so
aggressively that the real cost of borrowing fell to, effectively,
below zero. That spurred extraordinary amounts of debt financing by
governments and corporations. But now, as the global credit cycle tightens, some
of the marginal investments will quickly become unsustainable. If central
bankers keep raising interest rates, deeper cracks would open in the world
economy. What is really troubling markets is not inflation. It
is the fear that central banks may have tightened too much, and will tighten
further. If that happens, the recent market shock would be merely the precursor
to a still more dramatic quake.
问答题Paraphrase the sentence: "Blogs have enabled economists to turn their microphones into megaphones". (Para. 9)
问答题Why do people believe now that Disney is setting the pace for the industry? (Para. 5)
问答题For years I have been mercilessly lampooned by friends and acquaintances alike for my unorthodox lifestyle choice of having no TV. In an age of increasingly large flat-screens and surround sound which accost you the minute you walk into someone's house, people regularly look at me like I'm either severely handicapped or chronically hard done by when I mention that I have no television. I can see the mixture of genuine pity, raw pathos and sheer disbelief in their faces as they stare at me open-mouthed. And no, contrary to the jokes and insinuations from the equally incredulous young people I mentor, it's not because I can't afford to pay the TV license. To be sure, television is a great invention, if handled in moderation. The composite etymological derivation (from the Greek and the Latin words—literally meaning "to see from afar") tells of a tremendous technological feat which certainly deserves to be applauded. What's more, if one is discerning, it can be the source of some quality entertainment, instruction and enjoyment. Some of the nature documentaries and arts programmers on BBC 2 are truly fantastic. But the sad reality is that young people are rarely discerning and, by dint of poor time management skills, often end up wasting an inordinate amount of precious, never-returning time watching trash, their brains wallowing in a trough of mental lethargy.
问答题1.Passage 1
问答题Culture shock is the term used to describe the experience many people have when they travel to another country. It shows what happens when an individual suddenly experiences the different culture rules of another social group. Culture shock is a complex phenomenon. But I’m going to focus on three main ideas today. First of all, we will consider the reasons why people experience culture shock. Secondly, I will describe the different stages of this experience. Finally, I’ll mention why we have spent so much time and money to study this phenomenon. You might think that culture shock affects, see, only travelers. But that is not the case; in fact cross-culture studies have immersed practical value for modern society.
问答题Passage 2
