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What a triumph. Bank shares are rising, the FTSE 100 index is back where it was a week ago, and the queues have evaporated. Not many people are putting new deposits in Northern Rock, but a few are taking a punt on its shares. Order is restored. Actually, that 8o//00 rise in Northern Rock's share price is very embarrassing for the authorities. It reflects the fact the bank is worth more because its deposits are guaranteed by the Treasury. That looks like a straightforward bail—out for Northern Rock's shareholders, exactly the outcome the Bank of England has warned would store up trouble for the future. The Bank is right, of course. If all deposits at all banks were to be guaranteed—which seems to be the implication of the chancellor's statement—the state is potentially accepting an enormous liability. Worse, an odd incentive is created: managements who are insulated from a run on their bank might be inclined to take wilder risks with the cash. The chancellor and the Bank also know that, which is why Monday's emergency sticking plaster will be replaced by something more permanent and more sensible once the storm passes. The US model seems to be the one the Bank has in mind. Over there, 100% guarantees are given on sums up to $100,000 (￡50,000) and deposits are returned within days of a bank's failure. There is little need to fill in forms, which seemed to be another worry for those queueing at Northern Rock's branches. The US-style system seems infinitely fairer on customers, who can't reasonably be expected to assess the merits of various banks' business models before deciding where to place their savings. It should also prevent bank runs that last for days and provoke panic at more solid outfits. But what about the incentive to managements to bet such guaranteed deposits in wacky ways? That is where reform becomes complicated. If deposits, up to a certain sum, are to be guaranteed by the state, then the state needs to be compensated for taking on that risk. How about a higher rate of tax on banks' profits, or some other form of annual charge based on a bank's capital ratios? Banking bosses and their investors would scream at the idea, but it's perfectly logical. In fact, as part of the deal, the state should probably also demand tighter regulation of banks' activities. That means rethinking the role of the Financial Services Authority, which has responsibility for banking supervision. Until now, the FSA's "light touch" approach has been applauded around the world, especially on Wall Street, where bankers look enviously at a British system based on the sensible application of principles rather than hard—and—fast rules. But Northern Rock is not a terrific advert for the FSA' s style of doing things. It is unfair to say the regulator was asleep—it has warned as much as anybody of the risks posed by the complexity of modern financial markets. But it is fair to say that banks and financial institutions are less inclined to listen to a watchdog that prefers to bark rather than bite. Overkill would be even worse, but the balance may have to be addressed. Over in the US, they have a different way of dealing with the global credit crunch which caused so many problems for Northern Rock. They cut interest rates at the first sign of trouble. True to form, the US Federal Reserve cut rates by 0.5% last night. The stock market loved it. But snap reactions are often wrong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared at news of the cut. It was reminiscent of January 2001 when a cut of the same size- designed to ease the effects of the deflating dotcom bubble-provoked a one-day, 299-point rise in the Dow. Over the next eight weeks, however, the Dow fell by 1,600 points. Why? Simply the realization that the Fed's fears of a recession were well-founded. Could we see a similar storyline this time? Quite possibly. The danger in a 0.5% cut is that Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, does serious damage to the value of the US dollar, which is already at an all-time low against the euro. The US is struggling to attract investment from overseas to fund its current account deficit; Bernanke has just made the task harder. He is also sending a direct signal that the risk of recession in the US is real. The idea that an aggressive cut is good news may not last long, and indeed the Fed's statement spoke about promoting economic growth over time. The phrasing was hardly bullish.

问答题Many animals and plants threatened with extinction could be saved if scientists spent more time talking with the native people whose knowledge of local species is dying out as fast as their languages are being lost. Potentially vital information about many endangered species is locked in the vocabulary and expressions of local people, yet biologists are failing to tap into this huge source of knowledge before it is lost for good, scientists said. "It seems logical that the biologists should go and talk to the indigenous people who know more about the local environment than anyone else," said David Harrison, an assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. "Most of what humans know about ecosystems and species is not found in databases or libraries or written down anywhere. It's in people's heads. It's in purely oral traditions," Dr. Harrison told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. "About 80 per cent of the animals and plants visible to the naked eye have not yet been classified by science. It doesn't mean they are unknown; it just means we have a knowledge gap." An estimated 7,000 languages are spoken in the world but more than half of them are dying out so fast that they will be lost completely by the end of the century as children learn more common languages, such as English or Spanish. He cited the example of a South American skipper butterfly, Astraptes fulgerator, which scientists thought was just one species until a DNA study three years ago revealed that it was in fact 10 different species whose camouflaged colouration made the adult forms appear identical to one another. Yet if the scientists had spoken to the Tzeltal-speaking people of Mexico-descendants of the Maya--they might have learnt this information much sooner because Tzeltal has several descriptions of the butterflies based on the different kinds of caterpillar. "These people live on the territory of that butterfly habitat and in fact care very little about the adult butterfly but they have a very-fine grained classification for the larvae because the caterpillars affect their crops and their agriculture," Dr. Harrison said. "It's crucial for them to know which larva is eating which crop and at what time of year. Their survival literally depends on knowing that, whereas the adult butterfly has no impact on their crops," he said. "There was a knowledge gap on both sides and if they had been talking to each other they might have figured out sooner that they were dealing with a species complex," he said. "Indigenous people often have classification systems that are often more fine-grained and more precise than what Western science knows about species and their territories. " Another example of local knowledge was shown by the Musqueam people of British Columbia in Canada, who have fished the local rivers for generations and describe the trout and the salmon as belonging to the same group. In 2003 they were vindicated when a genetic study revealed that the "trout" did in fact belong to the same group as Pacific salmon, Dr. Harrison said. "It seems obvious that knowing more about species and ecosystems would put us in a better position to sustain those species and ecosystems," he said. "That's my argument, that the knowledge gap is vastly to the detriment of Western science. We know much less than we think we do. /

问答题Help! I Can"t Cope A friend who had lived in New York during the 1970s was recently here for a brief visit. I asked him what, in this ever- changing city. he found to be most startlingly changed. He thought for a moment before answering. "Probably the visible increase in prostitution," he replied. My astonishment at this comment was so palpable that he felt obliged to explain. "Haven"t you noticed," he asked with surprise, "all these young women standing furtively in doorways? You never used to see that when I was here." I couldn"t resist my laughter. "They"re not prostitutes," I clarified. "They"re smokers." For indeed they are. Most American office buildings no longer allow smoking on the premises, driving those who can"t resist the urge onto the streets. The sight of them, lounging on "coffee breaks" near the entrances to their workplace, puffing away, has become ubiquitous. Since most new smokers apparently are women, my friend"s confusion was understandable. And there are more than ever since September 11. Stress is probably better measured anecdotally than statistically. I"m not aware of surveys on this matter, but anyone living in New York these days has stories of friends who, amid the scares of 9-11 and its aftermath, have sought solace in cigarettes. I used to go to a gym in the Metlife Building over Grand Central Terminal. Some days so many people stood outside, tensely smoking, that I assumed an evacuation had just been ordered. At least three friends who"d given up tobacco have lapsed back into the habit, claiming they couldn"t calm their nerves any other way. Others have increased their previously reduced intakes. Some, in their quest for a crutch, have begun smoking for the first time. In modern Manhattan the frantic puff has become the preferred alternative to the silent scream. New Yorkers, of course, are coping in more imaginative ways, as well. A friend swears he knows someone who has stashed a canoe in his closet in case he needs to escape Manhattan by river. Another says he has moved a heavy objet d"art into his office so that he can smash the window if a firebomb makes the elevator or the staircase impassable. A women working on one of the lowers of her office building has acquired a rope long enough to lower herself to the ground; one who works at the top of a skyscraper tells me she"s looking into the purchase of a parachute. Still others have stocked up on such items of antiterrorist chic as flame-retardant ponchos, anthrax-antidote antibiotics and heavy-duty gas masks. Recent polls indicate that American women are more stressed than men. Over 50 percent in one national survey of 1,000 adults admitted to being "very" or "somewhat" worried in the wake of the terrorist assaults. The anthrax scare may have receded. But recent incidents, from the airplane crash in New York Borough of Queens to the arrest of the London "shoe-bomber" to rumors of suitcase nukes, seem to have had permanently unsettling effects. Take food. A surprising number of people are apparently unable to touch their plates. Others are eating too much, seeking reassurance in "comfort food." Given the alternatives, smoking seems a reasonable refuge; after all, the long-term threat of cancer seems far more remote these days than the prospect of explosive incineration.

问答题Destabilizing factors and uncertainties are clearly on the rise in our region. The impact of international financial crisis can still be felt and problems such as terrorist forces and drug trafficking are becoming more pronounced.

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问答题The Department of Education of Shandong Province recently issued a document, requiring middle and primary schools to "screen and filter" traditional classics carefully. The document says some content of traditional masterpieces, such as Students' Rules(弟子规) or The Three-Character Classic(三字经), does not conform to today's social value and should be deleted before being presented to students. This document has triggered heated debates. Topic: Should traditional masterpieces be cut? Questions for Reference: 1. Supporters say they believe, in providing education on traditional culture, the good should be retained and the bad discarded. Make your comment on this view. 2. Opponents say cutting sections from traditional masterpieces damages their integrity and deprives students of the chance of developing the ability of making independent judgments. What is your opinion? 3. What is the significance of learning traditional Chinese masterpieces today? What is the correct attitude towards traditional classics?

问答题Explain the statement "the road ahead will not be free of bumps". (Para.7)

问答题 Graduates from under-privileged backgrounds are to challenge the elitism of the barristers' profession, under plans outlined today. Reforms aimed at challenging the dominance of the rich and privileged classes which are disproportionately represented among the membership of the Bar will tackle the decline in students from poorer backgrounds joining the profession. They include financial assistance as well as measures to end the "intimidating environment" of the barristers' chambers which young lawyers must join if they want to train as advocates. The increasing cost of the Bar and a perception that it is run by a social elite has halted progress in the greater inclusion of barristers from different backgrounds. A number of high-profile barristers, including the prime minister's wife, Cherie Booth QC, have warned that without changes, the Bar will continue to be dominated by white, middle-class male lawyers. In a speech to the Social Mobility Foundation think tank in London this afternoon, Geoffrey Vos QC, Bar Council chairman, will say: "The Bar is a professional elite, by which I mean that the Bar's membership includes the best-quality lawyers practicing advocacy and offering specialist legal advice in many specialist areas. That kind of elitism is meritocratic, and hence desirable." "Unfortunately, however, the elitism which fosters the high-quality services that the Bar stands for has also encouraged another form of elitism. That is elitism in the sense of exclusivity, exclusion, and in the creation of a profession which is barely accessible to equally talented people from less privileged backgrounds." Last month, Mr. Vos warned that the future of the barristers' profession was threatened by an overemphasis on posh accents and public school education. Mr. Vos said then that people from ordinary backgrounds were often overlooked in favour of those who were from a "snobby" background. People from a privileged background were sometimes recruited even though they were not up to the job intellectually, he added. In his speech today, Mr. Vos will outline the "barriers to entry", to a career at the Bar and some of the ways in which these may be overcome. The Bar Council has asked the law lord, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, to examine how these barriers can be overcome, and he will publish his interim report and consultation paper before Easter. He is expected to propose a placement programme to enable gifted children from state schools to learn about the Bar, the courts and barristers at first hand. The Bar Council is also working towards putting together a new package of bank loans on favourable terms to allow young, aspiring barristers from poorer backgrounds to finance the Bar vocational course year and then have the financial ability to establish themselves in practice before they need to repay. These loans would be available alongside the Inns of Court's scholarship and awards programmes. Mr. Vos will say today: "I passionately believe that the professions in general, and the Bar in particular, must be accessible to the most able candidates from any background, whatever their race, gender, or socioeconomic group. The Bar has done well in attracting good proportions of women and racial minorities and we must be as positive in attracting people from all socioeconomic backgrounds."

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问答题中华文明历来注重亲仁善邻，讲求和睦相处。中国人在对外关系中始终秉承“强不凌弱”、“富不侮贫”的精神，主张“协和万邦”。中国人提倡“海纳百川，有容乃大”，主张吸纳百家优长、兼集八方精义。今天，中国坚定不移地走和平发展道路，既通过维护世界和平来发展自己，又通过自身的发展来促进世界和平。中国坚持实施互利共赢的对外开放战略，真诚愿意同各国广泛开展合作，真诚愿意兼收并蓄、博采各种文明之长，以合作谋和平、以合作促发展，推动建设一个持久和平、共同繁荣的和谐世界。

问答题Things must be going well in the parcels business. At $ 2.5m for a 30-second TV commercial during last weekend"s Super Bowl, an ad from FedEx was the one many Americans found the most entertaining. It showed a caveman trying to use a pterodactyl for an express delivery, only to watch it be gobbled up on take-off by a tyrannosaur. What did the world do before FedEx, the ad inquired? It might have asked what on earth FedEx did before the arrival of online retailers, which would themselves be sunk without today"s fast and efficient delivery firms. Consumers and companies continue to flock in droves to the internet to buy and sell things, FedEx reported its busiest period ever last December, when it handled almost 9m packages in a single day. Online retailers also set new records in America. Excluding travel, some $ 82 billion was spent last year buying things over the internet, 24% more than in 2004, according to comScore Networks, which tracks consumer behaviour. Online sales of clothing, computer software, toys, and home and garden products were all up by more than 30%. And most of this stuff was either posted or delivered by parcel companies. The boom is global, especially now that more companies are outsourcing production. It is becoming increasingly common for products to be delivered direct from factory to consumer. In one evening just before Christmas, a record 225,000 international express packages were handled by UPS at a giant new air-cargo hub, opened by the American logistics firm at Cologne airport in Germany. "The internet has had a profound effect on our business," says David Abney, UPS"s international president. UPS now handles more than 14m packages worldwide every day. It is striking that postal firms—once seen as obsolete because of the emergence of the internet—are now finding salvation from it. People are paying more bills online and sending more e-mails instead of letters, but most post offices are making up for the thanks to e-commerce. After four years of profits, the United States Postal Service has cleared its loss $11 billion of debt. Firms such as Amazon and eBay have even helped make Britain"s Royal Mail profitable. It needs to be: on January 1 st , the Royal Mail lost its 350-year-old monopoly on carrying letters. It will face growing competition from rivals, such as Germany"s Deutsche Post, which has expanded vigorously after partial privatization and now owns DHL, another big international delivery company. Both post offices and express-delivery firms have developed a range of services to help e commerce and eBay"s traders—who listed a colossal 1.9 billion items for sale last year. Among the most popular services are tracking numbers, which allow people to follow the progress of their deliveries on the internet. How long will the boom continue? The parcel companies clearly see plenty of growth ahead—they are making big investments in new cargo hubs and aircraft. But in some areas the limits are already being tested. On February and Amazon, the best-known online retailer, announced a 17% increase in sales to almost $3 billion in its busy fourth quarter. But profits fell because of higher shipping costs. Amazon has been subsidizing shipping to help boost its sales. Last year it introduced "Amazon Prime", which provides free shipping in return for a one-off payment. The tactic is "very expensive", Amazon"s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, told analysts. But, he added, the early signs are that it does at least encourage people to buy more. Yet internet-only e-tailers such as Amazon are also facing stiffer competition from bricks-and mortar stores improving their own online offers, including supermarket giants such as Wal-Mart. Some of these also offer "pick-up in-store" options for people buying online but wanting to avoid shipping costs or having to stay at home to take deliveries. Some of the parcels firms have been experimenting with delivering goods to petrol stations, where people can collect packages on their way home. They are also trying to come up with more low-cost services. Convenient, cheaper deliveries will encourage more people to shop online.

问答题Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. A hundred years after the Wright brothers' triumph at Kitty Hawk, the European consortium Airbus announced a milestone of its own—surpassing the American aviation giant Boeing in the number of airliners delivered in 2003. Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is now beating its U.S. rival at its own game of size and distance: The 555- passenger, long-range A380, bigger than any Boeing, is already in production. Airbus's success should be no surprise. American and France may be sparring diplomatically, but technologically the two nations have had a long love affair. Each has developed outstanding innovations, and each has assiduously exploited the other's ideas. Even the current U.S. military-industrial hegemony has some decidedly French roots. Sylvanus Thayer graduated from West Point in 1808, spent two years in Europe, and was utterly taken with French military thought and training. When he became superintendent in 1817, Thayer modeled the academy's demanding technical curriculum and ethic of honor and service after France's Ecole Polytechnique. Classics on sieges and fortifications by Louis XIV's engineering genius, Marshal Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, were standard texts; studying French was de rigueur. The French connection persisted into the Civil War. The Minie bullet that made that conflict's rifle-muskets three times as deadly as earlier weapons was originally developed by French officers. In 1885, the French ordnance engineer Paul Vieille introduced smokeless powder. French artillerymen invented the revolutionary hydropneumatic recoil that allows cannons to remain murderously locked on target for shot after shot. And where would the Navy SEALs be without scuba gear, developed in 1943 on the French Riviera by Emile Gagnan and a soon-to-be famous French officer, Jacques Cousteau? Even interchangeable parts, the foundation of America's mass production," have French roots. The historian of science Ken Alder has shown that a French gunsmith was using such a system as early as the 1720s. By the 1780s, French military officials were introducing uniform jigs and fixtures at arms factories to enforce strict tolerances and ensure deadlier firearms and ordnance. Thomas Jefferson praised the system, and while it fell into disuse in France in the 19th century, U.S. armories embraced it. Related methods became known in Europe as the American System and, later, as Fordism. Speaking of Ford, what could be more American than the automobile? Yet a Frenchman built the first self-propelled vehicle, powered by steam, more than 200 years ago. A hundred years later the French company Panhard introduced the basic architecture that automobiles have followed ever since. Henry Ford's triumphs depended not just on standardization but on use of strong, rust-resistant vanadium steel, which had impressed him in the wreck of a French racing car. Long before Airbus, the French produced superlative aeronautical engineers. They were the first Europeans to acclaim the Wrights' breakthroughs in aircraft control, and they made key improvements. French inventors, especially Louis Bleriot and Robert Esnault-Pelterie, created the monoplane as we know it, which is why we still speak of fuselages and ailerons. Esnault-Pelterie was also the father of the joystick. Flag-waving Americans may reply that many of France's own technological triumphs rely on ideas born here. French high-speed trains lead the world today, but as the railroad historian Mark Reutter has shown, the Budd Co. of Philadelphia was already building lightweight, articulated streamliners in the 1930s. And France now gets 75 percent of its electricity from America's great hope of 50 years ago, nuclear power. Social legislation also helps make France a showplace of other U.S. innovations, vending machines (limited retailing hours) and mass-produced antibiotics (generous health benefits). In fact, the French have so often jettisoned their heritage in favor of novel technology that it sometimes takes Americans to defend it. The Cornell University scholar Steven Kaplan has revived the art of French bread making, and Mother Noella Marcellino, an American Benedictine nun with a Ph. D. in microbiology, has been saving the classic cheese of France from pasteurization—a process invented by the Frenchman Louis Pasteur. It's pointless to debate who owes more to whom, and far more interesting to rejoice in cross-appropriation. Airbus has many U.S. suppliers, and Boeing will jump ahead sooner or later in the endless technological leapfrog. The last word may belong to the sage perhaps Oscar Wilde—who said, "Talents imitate; geniuses steal. "

问答题Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear 2 passages in Chinese. After you have heard each sentence or paragraph, interpret it into English. Start interpreting at the signal...and stop it at the signal... You may take notes while you are listening. Remember you will hear the passages only once. Now, let us begin Part B with the first passage.

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问答题糊涂一词在字典中的定义是：愚蠢的，傻的，荒谬的。我知道很多人都不想被人看作愚笨。所以他们在生活中始终一脸严肃，而这在本质上才是真正的愚笨。人无完人，我重申一次：没有人是完美的。我不在乎一个人学识多深，身材多好，外表多美，思想多浅薄，生活多俭朴，多富有，等等……人无完人!那么，为什么要伪装成我们实际上本不是的呢?人生何其短暂……你不会知道这美好的征程何时会结束。那么，为什么要浪费一分一秒，让自己变得棱角分明?这里引用索萨(Souza)的话，我觉得她一语中的，是人生的一大秘方：“跳舞吧，就像没有人欣赏一样；去爱吧，就像没有受到伤害一样；唱歌吧，就像没有人倾听一样；生活吧，就像今天是最后一天一样。”

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