问答题Questions 4~6
A Chinese graduate"s record-setting $ 8,888,888 donation to his school at Yale University has stirred wide debate at home. While some say it"s up to Zhang Lei to do as he likes, others question why he didn"t donate to his alma mater in Beijing.
The donation will primarily help build the new SOM campus, while a portion will provide scholarship support for the International Relations Program at Yale"s new Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, as well as fund a variety of China-related activities at the university.
Opinions at home have been split in online forums since the story broke a few days ago. On pinggu, org, a forum run by Renmin University of China where Zhang was enrolled as a student of International Finance in 1989, netizens including alumni of the university have taken sides. Some asked why Zhang, who graduated from Yale less than 10 years ago, chose an overseas institution rather than his Chinese university for the donation. But a larger group of online users voiced support for Zhang"s move and said there is still room for improvement regarding management of universities in China.
A prominent analyst urged people to be more tolerant toward the donation. "We should look at this news from an international standpoint," said Chi Fulin, professor and president of China Institute for Development and Reform. Chi said although Yale is the recipient of the fund, the donation will also benefit China. "It will promote more Sino-US exchange programs, and more Chinese will be involved in these exchanges." He said that China also has received a lot of support and funding from overseas donors, and Zhang"s move should be regarded with "respect, understanding and encouragement". In terms of cultural and educational exchanges between China and the United States, financial aid provided by the US government is rather limited, and a larger part of it comes from non-government organizations. "China should also try to attract more donations through such channels in the future," he said.
According to Yale"s website, the SOM graduate was born in Central China in 1972. At the age of 17 he scored the highest in the university entrance exam out of about 100,000 students in his province before being enrolled by Renmin University.
Zhang said Yale changed his life and taught him the spirit of giving. In his profile he wrote: "Yale has been helping China for more than 100 years. Many Chinese leaders were educated at Yale. But the relationship has been one-way for too long and I want to help change that. "
Zhang, who graduated from the Yale School of Management in 2002, worked for the Yale Investments Office. In 2005, Zhang founded Hillhouse Capital Management Ltd, a Beijing-based investment fund that manages $ 2.5 billion.
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问答题British police forces are reviewing more than 450 unsolved crimes in a push to capitalise on dramatic advances in DNA forensic science. The advent of new ways to collect DNA from items at crime scenes, coupled with powerful analytical tools, has made it possible to obtain DNA profiles of suspects from undetected crimes or cold cases committed nearly 20 years ago, according to a Home Office spokeswoman. The operation has already identified 42 suspects. The reviews focus on serious, often sexual offences and encompass at least 451 crimes committed between 1989 and 1995. Forensic scientists are returning to items of evidence stored at the time, from scraps of clothing to microscope slides holding just a few cells obtained from victims. This week, scientists at the Forensic Science Service, which manages the police national DNA database, used the pioneering technique of familial searching to help convict James Lloyd, a shoe fetishist who pleaded guilty to six sexual assaults at Sheffield crown court. The conviction came after scientists recovered DNA from a 20-year-old sperm sample held on a microscope slide. While the DNA did not match anyone on the DNA database, scientists searched again for similar DNA profiles and found a close match with his sister. The high-profile success follows the first use of a new intelligence tool known as pendulum list searching (PLS) which led to the conviction last month of Duncan Turner for a sexual assault in Birmingham in August 2005. Scientists working on the case found a mixture of DNA from different people on a pair of sunglasses found at the crime scene. They used PLS to generate a list of theoretical DNA profiles that could make up the mix. Some 500 pairs of theoretical DNA fingerprints were entered into the database, and one matched Turner. The FSS ploughed a further £ 6m into research last year and more powerful and precise techniques are in the pipeline. Part of the push to review cold cases of sexual assaults comes from the development of a technique called Fish, or Fluorescent In Situ Hybridisation, which allows forensic experts to identify and pluck just a few male cells from a swab of female cells taken from the victim. The technique identifies male cells by dyeing green only those carrying the male Y chromosome. Once they are stained, another new tool, laser microdissection, is used to cut them out and collect them, so a full profile can be obtained. Jim Fraser, a forensic scientist who served as an expert witness in the case of Michael Stone, who was convicted of a double murder in Kent in 1996, said advances in DNA science had already led to suspects being identified beyond the grave and would continue to become more powerful. "The long arm of the law is getting considerably longer-there's really no hiding place now," he said. According to Cathy Turner, a consultant forensic scientist at the FSS, the rapid advances in DNA technology have transformed the role of forensic scientists. "We've gone beyond corroborating allegations to using DNA and other techniques to provide fresh intelligence," she said. The swelling of the police national DNA database, which now holds profiles for 3.5m people, has in the last five years quadrupled the number of cases in which DNA is used. It provides police with some 3,000 matches to suspects every month. The national DNA database has been criticised by privacy groups, who fear the privatised database could potentially be misused, but for police forces it is an invaluable resource, said Dr. Fraser. "None of this evidence is infallible, irrefutable or unarguable. But it's pretty much the best evidence that'll ever be presented to the criminal justice system by some considerable way," he said.
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问答题Today my topic is cultures and traditional holidays.
Holiday are special times of respite from work and other routines. In some cases, they are legal holidays when stores, businesses and government offices are officially closed. In other cases, they are celebrated without taking time off from work. Holidays are often times for celebration, revelry, eating, drinking, travel, and family gatherings, but they may also be times of rest and reflection. The current trend is away from rest and reflection, Even Mardi Gras, the day before the traditionally reflective period of Lent, has turned into an entire week of parties, parades and merry-making for those who make the annual pilgrimage to New Orleans, for example.
In most cultures the scheduling of holidays originally was related to the seasons, the lunar cycle, and religion, Christmas (December 25) celebrates the birth of Jesus, but it is not actually known whether Jesus was born in the wintertime. The first Roman emperor to espouse Christianity decided to have Christmas when the days are shortest to bring a spirit of optimism to the long winter months. It also helped bring Christianity to the pagans, who were accustomed to having festivals at the winter solstice, encouraging warmth and sunshine to return. Over the years Christmas has come to symbolize goodwill and generosity for both Christians and non-Christians through the personification of Santa Claus, originally a Christian saint, known as St,Nicholas. Nowadays Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is almost as important a global symbol of Christmas as Jesus or Santa and the commercialization of Christmas threatens to replace generosity with greed. Many people forget that the original Christmas gifts were given by the Three Wise Men, all pagans, to Jesus, a Jewish child born in a manger. All they think of are the gifts they will give or receive, and all the money they have spent.
One reason for the increasing popularity of Christmas is its proximity to New Year’s Day, encouraging a long holiday to evolve out of both. In the U,S., the holiday has turned into an extended holiday season, lasting from Thanksgiving Day in late November until New Year’s Day, with a seemingly endless array of parties, dinners, concerts, parades, and vacation trips. The schools and colleges are closed from mid-December through early January while many people eat too much, drink too much, and watch too much American football on TV. Many gifts, cards, and annual newsletters are exchanged, and the various festivities are not always very restful. Then the same people make New Year’s Resolutions to eat less, drink less, spend less, and work harder in the coming year.
Christmas is by far the most important holiday in English-speaking countries. Other important holidays in addition to Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day are Valentine’s Day, St,Patrick’s Day, April Fools’ Day, and Easter. On Valentine’s Day, celebrated on February 14, people give cards, chocolates, flowers, and kisses to their spouses and sweethearts. On St,Patrick’s Day, March 17, people wear green to celebrate the luck of the Irish, and eat corned beef and cabbage washed down with green beer. During Easter Week in late March or early April, Christians remember the death and resurrection of Jesus while Jews celebrate Passover, in memory of the escape of the Jews from ancient Egypt, where they had been slaves. Although it is not actually a holiday and has no religious connotation, April Fools’ Day, celebrated on April 1, is a day when people play embarrassing tricks on their friends and colleagues and even on their teachers. Another holiday with some similarity to April Fools’ Day is Halloween on October 31,when children wear funny or scary costumes and ask their neighbors for, “tricks or treats”, The name Halloween means, hallowed evening”, the night before All Saints’ Day when Christian saints are honored. On the following day, All Souls’ Day, services and prayers are said for the dead. In many countries, it is a day when families visit cemeteries and place flowers on the tombs of their relatives. In Europe, Labor Day is celebrated on May 1, whereas in Canada and the United States, labor and laborers are honored by a legal holiday on the first Monday in September.
问答题When a Charleston, S.C., patrol officer stopped a young mother outside Walmart after store officials reported that she was shoplifting groceries, her first thought was of her children. Who would watch them if she were arrested? She could not afford the food she had taken for her family—let alone a babysitter, an attorney or bail. As the sheriff for Charleston County, I know that if the encounter had taken place a few years ago, she would likely have gone to jail, sending her and her children"s lives into an economic and emotional tailspin. In the past, law-enforcement officers had no alternatives to taking someone to jail for nonviolent offenses. Fortunately, that was not true in her case. Instead, the officer employed a new approach called "cite and release." Rather than jailing the woman for a low-level, nonviolent offense, the officer gave her a citation for shoplifting, instructed her to appear in court at a later date and let her go. She returned home to her children that day instead of spending weeks in jail awaiting trial at no benefit to public safety and to the detriment of her family.
At a time of heartbreaking turmoil over police-community relations and rising incarceration, national attention has once again turned to Charleston with the start last week of the trial of a former police officer in the tragic shooting death of Walter Scott. Now more than ever is the time for law-enforcement leaders to acknowledge that serious problems exist in our criminal justice systems and that reform begins with us. Law-enforcement leaders need to develop fair and effective approaches that reflect our commitment to public safety while giving people the best chance to succeed and lead productive lives. That young mother"s story is a prime example of the kind of gains we can make and lives we can save when we rethink how our justice systems should work.
How we use jails deserves a hard look. I have more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement, and I understand firsthand our obligation to protect public safety and the challenges my officers face every day as they work hard to protect us. I also know that the number of people in U.S. jails is high, and that even a brief stay in jail can upend lives and lead to deeper involvement in the criminal justice system. Some people never recover from a stay in jail. And the evidence shows that many of those people did not need to be there in the first place. Local jails—intended to hold people who pose a flight risk or threat to public safety—are instead incarcerating many who commit nonviolent offenses or are unable to afford bail, negatively affecting the community and the judicial system.
In South Carolina, the average daily population in our jails has exceeded capacity since 1989. Most people are there for low-level offenses, not dangerous crimes. Many with mental illness and substance-abuse issues cycle in and out for minor violations. And amid rising homelessness in our community, people who have nowhere to sleep are often jailed for trespassing. We must ask ourselves whether putting so many people in jail for offenses unrelated to public safety is the best use of our justice system and limited resources.
These challenges are not unique to Charleston. Across the country, there are nearly 12 million jail admissions each year, and many people remain behind bars and cut off from their families and jobs simply because they cannot afford bail. The problem is particularly acute for women: According to research from the Vera Institute of Justice, the number of women in jail is up 14-fold since 1970, and about 80% of them are mothers. Recognizing these troubling trends, Charleston is implementing a number of reforms to transform how we use jails that others should consider. We are one of several jurisdictions across the country that sought and received support to improve local justice systems and safely reduce jail populations.
As part of holistic reform efforts, a new legal-defense program for those who are unable to afford counsel will provide an attorney to low-income residents at their initial bond hearings, when judges determine if they can safely be released into the community while awaiting trial. Our cite-and-release program gives my officers more discretion in how to handle low-level offenses in situations when jail is not the best outcome for anyone. In addition, a triage center service launching next year will help officers steer people who are living with homelessness, mental illness or addiction into treatment and other services—and avoid incarceration.
We should not forget that many law-enforcement officers understand better than anyone where the problems lie in our justice systems. No one on my team wants to take someone to the county jail, away from family and livelihood, without any improvement to public safety. Together, we must do everything we can to find fairer, more-effective approaches to justice. As a law-enforcement leader and a sheriff, I know that jail is not always the answer.
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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What does the author mean by saying "all this sound and fury is mainly exhibitionism"? (Para. 1) Give some examples to support the author's idea.
问答题Thirty years ago this week, an American President arrived in China on a trip designed to end decades of estrangement and confront centuries of suspicion. President Richard Nixon showed the world that two vastly different governments could meet on the grounds of common interest, and in a spirit of mutual respect. During the 30 years since, America and China have exchanged many handshakes of friendship and commerce. And as we have had more contact with each other, the citizens of our two countries have gradually learned more about each other. Once, America knew China only by its history as a great and enduring civilization. Today, we see a China that is still defined by noble traditions of family, scholarship, and honor. And we see a China that is becoming one of the most dynamic and creative societies in the world as demonstrated by all the knowledge and potential right here in this room. China is on a rising path, and America welcomes the emergence of a strong, peaceful, and prosperous China.
问答题Go to the mall these days and it"s hard not to feel as if you"re being messed with, which is why J. C. Penney"s recent not-going-to- take-it-anymore ad rings true. You may have seen it. consumer upon consumer screaming "No!" as coupons flood out of a mailbox, crowds mass before dawn for a Black Friday-esque sale and store windows are stocked with items that are now 62% off. Too bad you bought them at full price, sucker.
The ad is staged and exaggerated, but the frustrations are real. To be a shopper—and not walk away screaming—is to come to grips with the reality that unless you are using shopbots and taking on bargain hunting as a full-time job, as some have, you are almost never going to get the lowest price. So when Penney"s newly appointed CEO, Ron Johnson, declared in mid-January that most of the original prices in his store have long been "fake" and inflated, the only surprising thing was that he had the guts to admit it. More surprising. Johnson said he was going to make changes.
Instead of facing infinite discounts and promotions—there were 590 different "sales" at Penney alone in 2011—the department store"s shoppers will now see just three price categories. One will represent discounted seasonal items that change monthly. Another is clearance merchandise marked down on the first and third Fridays of each month. But the majority of goods will be offered every day at 40% or 50% less than the prices Penney used to charge. In retail parlance that"s called EDLP, as in "everyday low price". It"s a radical shift for a promotional department store like Penney. The "fair and square" makeover also includes a new logo, store upgrades and in-store boutiques that will feature fewer brands.
The big discount chains Walmart and Target have long staked out EDLP, but mostly we live in a promotional, markdown world. And all those Sunday circulars, flash deals and holiday sales events—which seemed more intense than ever last year—have turned shopping into retail combat. According to the management-consulting firm A.T. Kearney, more than 40% of the items we bought last year were on sale. That"s up from 10% in 1990. Penney has been a notorious discounter, with nearly three-quarters of revenue coming from goods sold at 50% or more off list price—whatever that is—and less than 1% from fullprice merchandise.
If anyone is equipped to transform Penney, it"s the new CEO. Johnson joined the retailer in November, arriving from Apple, where for the past decade he presided over the computer company"s huge retail success. Apple loves price maintenance and loathes heavy discounting and sales gimmicks. Johnson believes Penney"s customers will appreciate pricing clarity, not to mention sleeping in. "I don"t think customers like having to come to a store between 8 and 10 a.m. on a Sunday in order to get the best price on swimwear," he said.
But iPads are not underwear or makeup. "My intuition is that, in the long run, the changes won"t be effective," says Kit Yarrow, consumer psychologist and author of
Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail.
"A discount gives shoppers the incentive to buy today. Without that, there"s no sense of urgency for people to purchase things that, frankly, they probably don"t need."
Today"s consumers respond well to transparency, though, and to businesses that admit their mistakes. The success of the Domino"s "We Were Wrong" campaign is Exhibit A. So Penney"s disavowal of marketing games should build customer trust. At least initially, the slashing of all list prices should also boost sales. But what happens when the novelty wears off and nothing seems special about everyday prices? By then, Johnson hopes, J. C. Penney will be a place that shoppers love because they like the merchandise and atmosphere, and they won"t fret about doing better elsewhere.
问答题What does the author mean by "how CEOs are paid—their incentives—matters, for them and society"? Give some examples.
问答题What does the author mean by "that might prove premature"? (Para. 2) Why does he say so?
问答题庐山初识,匆匆五十年矣,山城之聚,金陵之晤,犹历历如昨。别后音讯阔绝四十余年,诚属憾事。幸友谊犹存,两心相通。每遇客从远方来,道及夫人起居,更引起怀旧之情。近闻夫人健康如常,颇感欣慰。
环顾当今世界,风云迭起,台湾前途令人不安。今经国不幸逝世,情势更趋复杂。此间诸友及我甚为关切,亟盼夫人与当政诸公,力维安定祥和局势,并早定大计,推动国家早日统一。我方以为,只要国共两党为国家民族计,推诚相见,以平等之态度共商国是,则一切都可以商量,所虑之问题均不难解决。
我与夫人救国之途虽殊,爱国之心则同。深愿与夫人共谋我国家民族之统一,俾我中华腾飞于世界。
问答题我们要创造更加良好的政治环境和更加自由的学术氛围,让人民追求真理、崇尚理性、尊重科学,探索自然的奥秘、社会的法则和人生的真谛。正因为有了充分的学术自由,像牛顿这样伟大的科学家,才能够思潮奔腾、才华迸发,敢于思考前人从未思考过的问题,敢于踏进前人从未涉足的领域。
我们历来主张尊重世界文明的多样性,倡导不同文明之间的对话、交流与合作。我国已故著名社会学家费孝通先生,上世纪30年代曾在英国留学并获得博士学位,一生饱经沧桑。他在晚年提出:“各美其美,美人之美,美美与共,世界大同。”费老先生的这一人生感悟,生动反映了当代中国人开放包容的胸怀。
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问答题Why does the author say that "the film business has been on shaky ground"? (Para. 5)
问答题 The British government says Sir Michael Barber, once an
adviser to the former prime minister, Tony Blair, has changed pretty much every
aspect of education policy in England and Wales, often more than once. "The
funding of schools, the governance of schools, curriculum standards, assessment
and testing, the role of local government, the role of national government, the
range and nature of national agencies, schools admissions" —you name it, it's
been changed and sometimes changed back. The only thing that hasn't changed has
been the outcome. According to the National Foundation for Education Research,
there had been (until recently) no measurable improvement in the standards of
literacy and numeracy in primary schools for 50 years. England
and Wales are not alone. Australia has almost tripled education spending per
student since 1970. No improvement. American spending has almost doubled since
1980 and class sizes are the lowest ever. Again, nothing. No matter what you do,
it seems, standards refuse to budge. To misquote Woody Allen, those who can't
do, teach; those who can't teach, run the schools. Why bother,
you might wonder. Nothing seems to matter. Yet something must. There are big
variations in educational standards between countries. These have been measured
and re-measured by the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment
(PISA) which has established, first, that the best performing countries do much
better than the worst and, second, that the same countries head such league
tables again and again: Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore, South
Korea. Those findings raise what ought to be a fruitful
question, what do the successful lot have in common? Yet the answer to that has
proved surprisingly elusive. Not more money. Singapore spends less per student
than most. Nor more study time. Finnish students begin school later, and study
fewer hours, than in other rich countries. Now, an organisation
from outside the teaching fold- McKinsey, a consultancy that advises companies
and governments—has boldly gone where educationalists have mostly never gone:
into policy recommendations based on the PISA findings. Schools, it says, need
to do three things, get the best teachers; get the best out of teachers; and
step in when pupils start to lag behind. That may not sound exactly
"first-of-its-kind": schools surely do all this already? Actually, they don't.
If these ideas were really taken seriously, they would change education
radically. Begin with hiring the best. There is no question
that, as one South Korean official put it, "the quality of an education system
cannot exceed the quality of its teachers." Studies in Tennessee and Dallas have
shown that, if you take pupils of average ability and give them to teachers
deemed in the top fifth of the profession, they end up in the top 10% of student
performers; if you give them to teachers from the bottom fifth, they end up at
the bottom. The quality of teachers affects student performance more than
anything else. Yet most school systems do not go all out to get
the best. The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a
non-profit organisation, says America typically recruits teachers from the
bottom third of college graduates. Washington, DC recently hired as chancellor
for its public schools an alumna of an organisation called Teach for America,
which seeks out top graduates and hires them to teach for two years. Both her
appointment and the organisation caused a storm. A bias against
the brightest happens partly because of lack of money (governments fear they
cannot afford them), and partly because other aims get in the way. Almost every
rich country has sought to reduce class size lately. Yet all other things being
equal, smaller classes mean more teachers for the same pot of money, producing
lower salaries and lower professional status. That may explain the paradox that,
after primary school, there seems little or no relationship between class size
and educational achievement. McKinsey argues that the best
performing education systems nevertheless manage to attract the best. In Finland
all new teachers must have a master's degree. South Korea recruits
primary-school teachers from the top 5% of graduates, Singapore and Hong Kong
from the top 30%.
