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In the past 12 months, Nigeria has suffered from a shrinking economy, a sliding currency, and a prolonged fuel shortage. Now, Africa’s largest economy is facing a food crisis as major tomato fields have been destroyed by an insect, leading to a nationwide shortage and escalating prices.The insect, Tutaabsoluta, has destroyed 80% of farms in Kaduna, Nigeria’s largest tomato-producing state, leading the government there to declare a state of（）. The insect, also known as the tomato leaf miner, devastates crops by （） on fruits and digging into and moving through stalks. It （） incredibly quickly, breeding up to 12 generations per year if conditions are favorable. It is believed to have （） in South America in the early 1900s, and later spread Io Europe before crossing over to sub-Saharan Africa.In Nigeria, where tomatoes are a staple of local diets, the insect’s effects are devastating. Retail prices for a （） of tomatoes at local markets have risen from $0.50 to $2.50. Farmers are reporting steep losses and a new $20 million tomato-paste factory has （） production due to the shortages.Given the moth’s ability also to attack crops like pepper and potatoes, Audu Ogbeh, Nigeria’s minister of agriculture, has warned that the pest may “create serious problems for food （） in the country. Ogbeh says experts are investigating how to control the pest’s damage and prevent its spread, which has gone largely （） until now.Despite being the continent’s second-largest producer of tomatoes, Nigeria is （） on $1 billion worth of tomato-paste imports every year, as around 75% of the local harvest goes to waste thanks to a lack of proper storage facilities. A further （） in local supplies is yet another unwelcome setback to the industry.

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Seek to understand others, and you will be understood.” You can cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.青海湖位于海拔3205米、青海省省会西宁以西约100公里处，是中国最大的咸水湖，面积4317平方公里，最深处25.5米。有23条河注入湖中，其中大部分是季节性的。百分之八十的湖水源于五条主要河流。青海湖位于跨越亚洲的几条候鸟迁徙路线的交叉处。许多鸟类把青海湖作为迁徙过程中的暂息地。湖的西侧是著名的“鸟岛”，吸引着来自世界各地的观鸟者。每年夏天，游客们也来这里观看国际自行车比赛。

It is the season for some frantic last-minute math—across the country, employees of all stripes are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have left in their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations altogether and just power through the holidays into 2017: More than half of American workers don’t use up all of their allotted vacation days each year.Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neem Paharia, and Anat Keinan recently explained in Harvard Business Review (HBR\ leisure time was once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way—these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are seen as the mark of someone important.In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much we’ve come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read two passages, one about a man who led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worked and over-scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social status, the majority of the participants said the latter.The same held true for people who used products that implied they were short on time: In one experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery service Peapod were seen as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further up on the social ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were just, used to listen to music.In part, the authors wrote in HBR, this pattern may have to do with the way work itself has changed over the past several decades.We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to busyness-as-status may be linked to the development of knowledge-intensive economies. In such economies, individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or clients value (e.g” competence and ambition. are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job market. Thus, by telling others that we are busy and working all the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our perceived status.Even if you feel tempted to sacrifice your own vacation days for fake busyness, though, at least consider leaving your weekends unscheduled. It’s for your own good.What do most employees plan to do towards the end of the year?How would people view dedication to work in the past?What did the researchers find through a series of experiments?What may account for the change of people’s attitude towards being busy?What does the author advise us to do at the end of the passage?

At the base of a mountain in Tanzania's Gregory Rift, Lake Natron bums bright red, surrounded by the remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished, sealed in the deposits of sodium carbonate in the water. The lake’s landscape is bizarre and deadly—and made even more so by the fact that it’s the place where nearly 75 percent of the world's flamingos (火烈鸟.are born.The water is so corrosive that it can bum the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. Flamingos, however, are the only species that actually makes life in the midst of all that death. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed. Three-quarters of the world’s flamingos fly over from other salt lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on salt-crystal islands that appear when the water is at a specific level—too high and the birds can't build their nests, too low and predators can move briskly across the lake bed and attack. When the water hits the right level, the baby birds are kept safe from predators by a corrosive ditch.“Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water,” says David Harper, a professor at the University of Leicester. “Humans cannot, and would die if their legs were exposed for any length of time.” So far this year, water levels have been too high for the flamingos to nest.Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake as less salty lagoons (泻湖.form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. Three species of tilapia (罗非鱼.thrive there part-time. “Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into the lagoons when the lake is low and the lagoons are separate,” Harper said. “All the lagoons join when the lake is high and fish must retreat to (heir stream refuges or die.” Otherwise, no fish are able to survive in the naturally toxic lake.This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. The Tanzanian government has once again started mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and detergents. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upset the natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now, though, life prevails—even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.What can we learn about Lake Natron?Flamingos nest only when the lake water is at a specific level so that their babies can（）.Flamingos in the Rift Valley are unique in that （）. Why can certain species of tilapia sometimes survive around Lake Natron?What may be the consequence of Tanzanian government’s planned operation?

Apple’s Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Tech Industry[A] The battle between Apple and law enforcement officials over unlocking a terrorist’s smartphone is the culmination of a slow turning of the tables between the technology industry and the United States government.[B] After revelations by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 that the government both cozied zip to (i寸好.certain tech companies and hacked into others to gain access to private data on an enormous scale, tech giants began to recognize the United States government as a hostile actor. But if the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are destined to emerge victorious.[C] It may not seem that way at the moment. On the one side, you have the United States government’s mighty legal and security apparatus fighting for data of the most sympathetic sort: the secrets buried in a dead mass murderer’s phone. The action stems from a federal court order issued on Tuesday requiring Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI. to unlock an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.[D] In the other comer is the world’s most valuable company, whose chief executive, Timothy Cook, has said he will appeal the court’s order. Apple argues that it is fighting to preserve a principle that most of us who are addicted to our smartphones can defend: Weaken a single iPhone so that its contents can be viewed by the American government and you risk weakening all iPhones for any government intruder, anywhere.[E] There will probably be months of legal confrontation, and it is not at all clear which side will prevail in court, nor in the battle for public opinion and legislative favor. Yet underlying all of this is a simple dynamic: Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public’s collective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data.[F] Any crack in that front could be fatal for tech companies that must operate worldwide. If Apple is forced to open up an iPhone for an American law enforcement investigation, what is to prevent it from doing so for a request from the Russians or the Iranians? If Apple is forced to write code that lets the FBI get into the Phone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the male attacker in the San Bernardino attack, who would be responsible if some hacker got hold of that code and broke into its other devices?[G] Apple’s stance on these issues emerged post-Snowden, when the company started putting in place a series of technologies that, by default, make use of encryption （加密）to limit access to people’s data. More than that, Apple—and, in different ways, other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft一have made their opposition to the government's claims a point of corporate pride.[H] Apple’s emerging global brand is privacy; it has staked its corporate reputation, not to mention the investment of considerable technical and financial resources, on limiting the sort of mass surveillance that was uncovered by Mr. Snowden. So now, for many cases involving governmental intrusions into data, once-lonely privacy advocates find themselves fighting alongside the most powerful company in the world.[I] “A comparison point is in the 1990s battles over encryption,” said Kurt Opsahl, general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group. “Then you had a few companies involved, but not one of the largest companies in the world coming out with a lengthy and impassioned post, like we saw yesterday from Timothy Cook. Its profile has really been raised.”[J] Apple and other tech companies hold another ace: the technical means to keep making their devices more and more inaccessible. Note that Apple's public opposition to the government’s request is itself a hindrance to mass government intrusion. And to get at the contents of a single iPhone, the government says it needs a court order and Apple’s help to write new code; in earlier versions of the iPhone, ones that were created before Apple found religion on （热衷于）privacy, the FBI might have been able to break into the device by itself.[K] You can expect that noose （束缚）to continue to tighten. Experts said that whether or not Apple loses this specific case, measures that it could put into place in the future will almost certainly be able to further limit the government's reach.[L] That is not to say that the outcome of the San Bernardino case is insignificant. As Apple and several security experts have argued, an order compelling Apple to write software that gives the FBI access to the iPhone in question would establish an unsettling precedent. The order essentially asks Apple to hack its own devices, and once it is in place, the precedent could be used to justify law enforcement efforts to get around encryption technologies in other investigations far removed from national security threats.[M] Once armed with a method for gaining access to iPhones, the government could ask to use it proactively （先发制人地），before a suspected terrorist attack—leaving Apple in a bind as to whether to comply or risk an attack and suffer a public-relations nightmare. “This is a brand-new move in the war against encryption,” Mr. Opsahl said. “We have had plenty of debates in Congress and the media over whether the government should have a backdoor, and this is an end run （迂回战术） around that.—here they come with an order to create that backdoor."[N] Yet it is worth noting that even if Apple ultimately loses this case, it has plenty of technical means to close a backdoor over time. “If they are anywhere near worth their salt as engineers, I bet they are rethinking their threat model as we speak,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, a digital expert who studies the iPhone and its vulnerabilities.[O] One relatively simple fix, Mr. Zclziarski said, would be for Apple to modify future versions of the iPhone to require a user to enter a passcode before the phone will accept the sort of modified operating system that the FBI wants Apple to create. That way, Apple could not unilaterally introduce a code that weakens the iPhone—a user would have to consent to it.[P] “Nothing is 100 percent hacker-proof,M Mr. Zdziarski said, but he pointed out that the judge’s order in this case required Apple to provide “reasonable security assistance" to unlock Mr. Farooks phone. If Apple alters the security model of future iPhones so that even its own engineers’ “reasonable assistance” will not be able to crack a given device when compelled by the government, a precedent set in this case might lose its lasting force. In other words, even if the FBI wins this case, in the long run, it loses.

Many European countries have been making the shift to electric vehicles and Germany has just stated that they plan to ban the sales of vehicles using gasoline and diesel as fuel by 2030. The country is also planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 80-95% by 2050, （） a shift to green energy in the country. Effectively, the ban will include the registration of new cars in the country as they will not allow any gasoline （） vehicle to be registered after 2030.Part of the reason this ban is being discussed and （） is because energy officials see that they will not reach their emissions goals by 2050 if they do not （） a large portion of vehicle emissions. The country is still （） that it will meet its emissions goals, like reducing emissions by 40% by 2020, but the （） of electric cars in the country has not occurred as fast as expected.Other efforts to increase the use of electric vehicles include plans to build over 1 million hybrid and electric car battery charging stations across the country. By 2030, Germany plans on having over 6 million charging stations （） . According to the International Business Times, electric car sales are expected to increase as Volkswagen is still recovering from its emissions scandal.There are （） around 155,000 registered hybrid and electric vehicles on German roads, dwarfed by the 45 million gasoline and diesel cars driving there now. As countries continue setting goals of reducing emissions, greater steps need to be taken to have a （） effect on the surrounding environment. While the efforts are certainly not （） , the results of such bans will likely only start to be seen by generations down the line, bettering the world for the future.

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “Respect others, and you will be respected.” You can cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes Io translate a passage from Chinese into English.宋朝始于960年，一直延续到1279年。这一时期，中国经济大幅增长，成为世界上最先进的经济体，科学、技术、哲学和数学蓬勃发展。宋代中国是世界历史上首先发行纸币的国家。宋朝还最早使用火药并发明了活字(movable- type). 印刷。人口增长迅速，越来越多的人住进城市，那里有热闹的娱乐场所。社会生活多种多样。人们聚集在一起观看和交易珍贵艺术品。宋朝的政府体制在当时也是先进的。政府官员均通过竞争性考试选拔任用。

Beginning in the late sixteenth century, it became fashionable for young aristocrats to visit Paris, Venice, Florence, and above all, Rome, as the culmination (终极.of their classical education. Thus was born the idea of the Grand Tour, a practice which introduced Englishmen, Germans, Scandinavians, and also Americans to the art and culture of France and Italy for the next 300 years. Travel was arduous and costly throughout the period, possible only for a privileged class—the same that produced gentlemen scientists, authors, antique experts, and patrons of the arts.The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin litera¬ture as well as some leisure lime, some means, and some interest in art. The German traveler Johann Winckelmann pioneered the field of art history with his comprehensive study of Greek and Roman sculpture; he was portrayed by his friend Anton Raphael Mengs at the beginning of his long residence in Rome. Most Grand Tourists, however, stayed for briefer periods and set out with less scholarly inten¬tions, accompanied by a teacher or guardian, and expected to return home with souvenirs of their trav¬els as well as an understanding of art and architecture formed by exposure to great masterpieces.London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many traveled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy. The British traveler Charles Thomp¬son spoke for many Grand Tourists when in 1744 he described himself as “being impatiently desirous of viewing a country so famous in history, a country which once gave laws to the world, and which is at present the greatest school of music and painting, contains the noblest productions of sculpture and ar¬chitecture, and is filled with cabinets of rarities, and collections of all kinds of historical relics.” Within Italy, the great focus was Rome, whose ancient ruins and more recent achievements were shown to every Grand Tourist. Panini’s Ancient Rome and Modem Rome represent the sights most prized, including celebrated Greco-Roman statues and views of famous ruins, fountains, and churches. Since there were few museums anywhere in Europe before the close of the eighteenth century, Grand Tourists often saw paintings and sculptures by gaining admission to private collections, and many were eager to acquire examples of Greco-Roman and Italian art for their own collections. In England, where architecture was increasingly seen as an aristocratic pursuit, noblemen often applied what they learned from the villas of Palladio in the Veneto and the evocative (唤起回忆的.ruins of Rome to their own country houses and gardens.What is said about the Grand Tour?What did Grand Tourists have in common?How did Grand Tourists benefit from their travel?Why did many Grand Tourists visit the private collections?How did the Grand Tour influence the architecture in England?

Tennessee’s technical and community colleges will not outsource （外包）management of their facili¬ties to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus’ spending on facilities man¬agement fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings—which included data from the system’s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities一were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam’s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very effi¬ciently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursuing a broad scale outsourcing ini¬tiative.’Workers’ advocates have criticized Haslam’s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.Morgan notified the Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.In an email statement from the state’s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to ana¬lyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.“The state’s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business jus¬tification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,” Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”Morgan’s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that, he has come out against one of Haslam’s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor’s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Re¬gents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable.”What do we learn about the decision of technical and community colleges in Tennessee?What does the campus spending analysis reveal?Workers’ supporters argue that Bill Haslam’s proposal would （）.What do we learn from the state spokeswoman’s response to John Morgan’s decision?Why did John Morgan decide to resign?

Rich Children and Poor Ones Are Raised Very Differently[A] The lives of children from rich and poor American families look more different than ever before.[B] Well-off families are ruled by calendars, with children enrolled in ballet, soccer and after-school programs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. There are usually two parents, who spend a lot of time reading to children and worrying about their anxiety levels and hectic schedules.[C] In poor families, meanwhile, children tend to spend their time at home or with extended family. They are more likely to grow up in neighborhoods that their parents say aren’t great for raising children, and their parents worry about them getting shot, beaten up or in trouble with the law.[D] The class differences in child rearing are growing一a symptom of widening inequality with far-reach¬ing consequences. Different upbringings set children on different paths and can deepen socioeconomic divisions, especially because education is strongly linked to earnings. Children grow up learning the skills to succeed in their socioeconomic stratum （阶层），but not necessarily others.[E] “Early childhood experiences can be very consequential for children’s long-term social, emotional and cognitive development,” said Sean Reardon, professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford University. “And because those influence educational success and later earnings, early child¬hood experiences cast a lifelong shadow.” The cycle continues: Poorer parents have less time and fewer resources to invest in their children, which can leave children less prepared for school and work, which leads to lower earnings.[F] American parents want similar things for their children, the Pew report and past research have found: for them to be healthy and happy, honest and ethical, caring and compassionate. There is no best parenting style or philosophy, researchers say, and across income groups, 92% of parents say they are doing a good job at raising their children. Yet they are doing it quite differently. Middle- class and higher-income parents see their children as projects in need of careful cultivation, says Annette Lareau, whose groundbreaking research on the topic was published in her book Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life. They try to develop their skills through close supervision and organized activities, and teach children to question authority figures and navigate elite institu¬tions.[G] Working-class parents, meanwhile, believe their children will naturally thrive, and give them far greater independence and time for free play. They are taught to be compliant and respectful to adults. There are benefits to both approaches. Working-class children are happier, more independent, complain less and are closer to family members, Ms. Lareau found. Higher-income children are more likely to declare boredom and expect their parents to solve their problems. Yet later on, the more affluent children end up in college and on the way to the middle class, while working-class children tend to struggle. Children from higher-income families are likely to have the skills to navigate bureaucracies and succeed in schools and workplaces, Ms. Lareau said.[H] “Do all parents want the most success for their children? Absolutely,” she said. “Do some strategies give children more advantages than others in institutions? Probably they do. Will parents be damag¬ing children if they have one fewer organized activity? No, I really doubt it.”[I] Social scientists say the differences arise in part because low-income parents have less money to spend on music class or preschool, and less flexible schedules to take children to museums or at¬tend school events. Extracurricular activities reflect the differences in child rearing in the Pew survey, which was of a nationally representative sample of 1,807 parents. Of families earning more than$75,000 a year, 84% say their children have participated in organized sports over the past year, 64% have done volunteer work and 62% have taken lessons in music, dance or art. Of families earning less than $30,000, 59% of children have done sports, 37% have volunteered and 41% have taken arts classes.[J] Especially in affluent families, children start young. Nearly half of high-earning, college-graduate par¬ents enrolled their children in arts classes before they were 5, compared with one-fifth of low- income, less-educated parents. Nonetheless, 20% of well-off parents say their children’s schedules are too hectic, compared with 8% of poorer parents.[K] Another example is reading aloud, which studies have shown gives children bigger vocabularies and better reading comprehension in school. 71% of parents with a college degree say they do it every day, compared with 33% of those with a high school diploma or less. White parents are more likely than others to read to their children daily, as are married parents. Most affluent parents enroll their children in preschool or day care, while low-income parents are more likely to depend on family members. Discipline techniques vary by education level: 8% of those with a postgraduate degree say they often beat their children, compared with 22% of those with a high school degree or less.[L] The survey also probed attitudes and anxieties. Interestingly, parents' attitudes toward education do not seem to reflect their own educational background as much as a belief in the importance of edu¬cation for upward mobility. Most American parents say they are not concerned about their children’s grades as long as they work hard. But 50% of poor parents say it is extremely important to them that their children earn a college degree, compared with 39% of wealthier parents.[M] Less-educated parents, and poorer and black and Latino parents are more likely to believe that there is no such thing as too much involvement in a child’s education. Parents who are white, wealthy or college-educated say too much involvement can be bad. Parental anxieties reflect their circumstances. Higlveaming parents are much more likely to say they live in a good neighborhood for raising children. While bullying is parents’ greatest concern over all, nearly half of low-income parents worry their child will get shot, compared with one-fifth of high-income parents. They are more worried about their children being depressed or anxious.[N] In the Pew survey, middle-class families earning between $30,000 and $75,000 a year fell right between working-class and high-earning parents on issues like the quality of their neighborhood for raising children, participation in extracurricular activities and involvement in their children’s education.[O] Children were not always raised so differently. The achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is 30-40% larger among children born in 2001 than those born 25 years earlier, according to Mr. Reardon’s research People used to live near people of different income levels; neighborhoods are now more segregated by income. More than a quarter of children live in single¬parent households—a historic high, according to Pew—and these children are three times as likely to live in poverty as those who live with married parents. Meanwhile, growing income inequality has coincided with the increasing importance of a college degree for earning a middle-class wage.[P] Yet there are recent signs that the gap could be starting to shrink. In the past decade, even as in¬come inequality has grown, some of the socioeconomic differences in parenting, like reading to children and going to libraries, have narrowed.[Q] Public policies aimed at young children have helped, including public preschool programs and reading initiatives. Addressing differences in the earliest years, it seems, could reduce inequality in the next generation.

Let’s all stop judging people who talk to themselves. New research says that those who can’t seem to keep their inner monologues (独白)in are actually more likely to stay on task, remain（）bet¬ter and show improved perception capabilities. Not bad, really, for some extra muttering.According to a series of experiments published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology by professors Gary Lupyan and Daniel Swignley, the act of using verbal clues to （） mental pictures helps people function quicker.In one experiment, they showed pictures of various objects to twenty （） and asked them to find just one of those, a banana. Half were （） to repeat out loud what they were looking for and the other half kept their lips （） . Those who talked to themselves found the banana slightly faster than those who didn’t, the researchers say. In other experiments, Lupyan and Swignley found that （） the name of a common product when on the hunt for it helped quicken someone’s pace, but talking about uncommon items showed no advantage and slowed you down.Common research has long held that talking themselves through a task helps children learn, although doing so when you’ve （） matured is not a great sign of （） . The two professors hope to refute that idea, （） that just as when kids walk themselves through a process, adults can benefit from us¬ing language not just to communicate, but also to help “augment thinking".Of course, you are still encouraged to keep the talking at library tones and, whatever you do, keep the information you share simple, like a grocery list. At any （） , there’s still such a thing as too much information.

Directions: Suppose you are asked to give advice on whether to major in science or humanities at college, write an essay to state your opinion. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.明朝统治中国276年，被人们描绘成人类历史上治理有序、社会稳定的最伟大的时代之一。这一时期，手工业的发展促进了市场经济和城市化。大量商品，包括酒和丝绸，都在市场销售。同时，还进口许多外国商品，如时钟和烟草。北京、南京、扬州、苏州这样的大商业中心相继形成。也是在明代，由郑和率领的船队曾到印度洋进行了七次大规模探险航行。还值得一提的是，中国文学的四大经典名著中有三部写于明代。

Massive rubbish dumps and sprawling landfills constitute one of the more uncomfortable impacts that humans have on wildlife. They have led some birds to give up on migration. Instead of flying thou¬sands of miles in search of food, they make the waste sites their winter feeding grounds.Researchers in Germany used miniature GPS tags to track the migrations of 70 white storks (鸛).from different sites across Europe and Asia during the first five months of their lives. While many birds travelled along well-known routes to warmer climates, others stopped short and spent the winter on landfills, feeding on food waste, and the multitudes of insects that thrive on the dumps.In the short-term，the birds seem to benefit from overwintering (过冬.on rubbish dumps. Andrea Flack of the Max Planck Institute found that birds following traditional migration routes were more likely to die than German storks that flew only as far as northern Morocco, and spent the winter there on rubbish dumps. “For the birds it’s a very convenient way to get food. There are huge clusters of organic waste they can feed on,” said Flack. The meals are not particularly appetising, or even safe. Much of the waste is discarded rotten meat, mixed in with other human debris such as plastic bags and old toys.“It's very risky. The birds can easily eat pieces of plastic or rubber bands and they can die," said Flack. "And we don’t know about the long-term consequences. They might eat something toxic and dam¬age their health. We cannot estimate that yet.”The scientists tracked white storks from different colonies in Europe and Africa. The Russian, Greek and Polish storks flew as far as South Africa, while those from Spain, Tunisia and Germany flew only as far as the Sahel.Landfill sites on the Iberian peninsula have long attracted local white storks, but all of the Spanish birds tagged in the study flew across the Sahara desert to the western Sahel. Writing in the journal, the scientists describe how the storks from Germany were clearly affected by the presence of waste sites, with four out of six birds that survived for at least five months overwintering on rubbish dumps in northern Morocco, instead of migrating to the Sahel.Flack said it was too early to know whether the benefits of plentiful food outweighed the risks of feeding on landfills. But that’s not the only uncertainty. Migrating birds affect ecosystems both at home and at their winter destinations, and disrupting the traditional routes could have unexpected side effects. White storks feed on locusts (蝗虫).and other insects that can become pests if their numbers get out of hand. “They provide a useful service,” said Flack.What is the impact of rubbish dumps on wildlife?What do we learn about birds following the traditional migration routes?What does Andrea Flack say about the birds overwintering on rubbish dumps?What can be inferred about the Spanish birds tagged in the study?What is scientists’ other concern about white storks feeding on landfills?

We live today indebted to McCardell, Cashin，Hawes, Wilkins, and Maxwell, and other women who liberated American fashion from the confines of Parisian design. Independence came in tying, wrapping, storing, harmonizing, and rationalizing that wardrobe. These designers established the modem dress code, letting playsuits and other activewear outfits suffice for casual clothing, allowing pants to enter the wardrobe, and prizing rationalism and versatility in dress, in contradiction to dressing for an occasion or allotment of the day. Fashion in America was logical and answerable to the will of the women who wore it. Implicitly or explicitly, American fashion addressed a democracy, whereas traditional Paris-based fashion was prescriptive and imposed on women, willing or not.In an earlier time, American fashion had also followed the dictates of Paris, or even copied and pi¬rated specific French designs. Designer sportswear was not modeled on that of Europe, as "modem art” would later be; it was genuinely invented and developed in America. Its designers were not high-end with supplementary lines. The design objective and the business commitment were to sportswear, and the distinctive traits were problem-solving ingenuity and realistic lifestyle applications. Ease of care was most important: summer dresses and outfits, in particular, were chiefly cotton, readily capable of being washed and pressed at home. Closings were simple, practical, and accessible, as the modem woman de¬pended on no personal maid to dress her. American designers prized resourcefulness and the freedom of the women who wore the clothing.Many have argued that the women designers of this time were able to project their own clothing values into a new style. Of course, much of this argument in the 1930s-40s was advanced because there was little or no experience in justifying apparel (服装.on the basis of utility. If Paris was cast aside, the tradition of beauty was also to some degree slighted. Designer sportswear would have to be verified by a standard other than that of pure beauty; the emulation of a designer’s life in designer sportswear was a crude version of this relationship. The consumer was ultimately to be mentioned as well, espe¬cially by the likes of Dorothy Shaver, who could point to the sales figures at Lord & Taylor.Could utility alone justify the new ideas of the American designers? Fashion is often regarded as a pursuit of beauty, and some cherished fashion’s trivial relationship to the fine arts. What the designers of American sportswear proved was that fashion is a genuine design art, answering to the demanding needs of service. Of course these practical, insightful designers have determined the course of late twentieth- century fashion. They were the pioneers of gender equity, in their useful, adaptable clothing, which was both made for the masses and capable of self-expression.What contribution did the women designers make to American fashion?What do we learn about American designer sportswear?What characterized American designer sportswear?What occurred in the design of women’s apparel in America during the 1930s-40s?What do we learn about designers of American sportswear?

Elite Math Competitions Struggle to Diversify Their Talent Pool[A] Interest in elite high school math competitions has grown in recent years, and in light of last sum¬mers U.S. win at the International Math Olympiad (IMO.一the first for an American team in more than two decades—the trend is likely to continue.[B] But will such contests, which are overwhelmingly dominated by Asian and white students from mid¬dle-class and affluent families, become any more diverse? Many social and cultural factors play roles in determining which promising students get on the path toward international math recognition. But efforts are in place to expose more black, Hispanic, and low-income students to advanced math, in the hope that the demographic pool of high-level contenders will eventually begin to shift and be¬come less exclusive.[C] “The challenge is if certain types of people are doing something, it’s difficult for other people to break into it,” said Po-Shen Loh, the head coach of last year’s winning U.S. Math Olympiad team. Participation grows through friends and networks and if “you realize that’s how they’re growing, you can start to take action” and bring in other students, he said.[D] Most of the training for acivanced-math competitions happens outside the confines of the normal school day. Students attend after-school clubs, summer camps, online forums and classes, and uni¬versity-based “math circles,” to prepare for the competitions.[E] One of the largest feeders for high school math competitions—including those that eventually lead to the IMO一is a middle school program called MathCounts. About 100/.00 students around the country participate in the program’s competition series, which culminates in a national game-show-style con¬test held each May. The most recent one took place last week in Washington, D.C. Students join a team through their schools, which provide a volunteer coach and pay a nominal fee to send students to regional and state competitions. The 224 students who make it to the national competition get an all-expenses-paid trip.[F] Nearly all members of last year’s winning U.S. IMO team took part in MathCounts as middle school students, as did Loh, the coach. “Middle school is an important age because students have enough math capability to solve advanced problems, but they haven’t really decided what they want to do with their lives,” said Loh. “They often get hooked then."[G] Another influential feeder for advanced-math students is an online school called Art of Problem Solving，which began about 13 years ago and now has 15,000 users. Students use forums to chat, play games, and solve problems together at no cost, or they can pay a few hundred dollars to take courses with trained teachers. According to Richard Rusczyk, the company founder, the six U.S. team members who competed at the IMO last year collectively took more than 40 courses on the site. Parents of advanced-math students and MathCounts coaches say the children are on the website constantly.[H] There are also dozens of summer camps—many attached to universities—that aim to prepare elite math students. Some are pricey—a three-week intensive program can cost $4,500 or more—but most offer scholarships. The Math Olympiad Summer Training Program is a three-week math camp held by the Mathematical Association of America that leads straight, to the international championship and is free for those who make it. Only about 50 students are invited based on their performance on writ¬ten tests and at the USA Math Olympiad.[I] Students in university towns may also have access to another lever for involvement in accelerated math: math circles. In these groups, which came out of an Eastern European tradition of developing young talent, professors teach promising K-12 students advanced mathematics for several hours after school or on weekends. The Los Angeles Math Circle, held at the University of California, Los Ange¬les, began in 2007 with 20 students and now has more than 250. “These math circles cost nothing, or they’re very cheap for students to get involved in, but you have to know about them,” said Rusczyk. “Most people would love to get students from more underserved populations, but they just can’t get them in the door. Part of it is communication; part of it is transportation.”[J] It’s no secret in the advanced-math community that diversity is a problem. According to Mark Saul, the director of competitions for the Mathematical Association of America, not a single African-Ameri¬can or Hispanic student—and only a handful of girls一has ever made it to the Math Olympiad team in its 50 years of existence. Many schools simply don’t prioritize academic competitions. “Do you know who we have to beat?” asked Saul. “The football team, the basketball team—that’s our compe¬tition for resources, student time, attention, school dollars, parent efforts, school enthusiasm.”[K] Teachers in low-income urban and rural areas with no history of participating in math competitions may not know about advanced-math opportunities like MathCounts—and those who do may not have support or feel trained to lead them.[L] But there are initiatives in place to try to get more underrepresented students involved in accelerated math. A New York City-based nonprofit called Bridge to Enter Mathematics runs a residential sum¬mer program aimed at getting underserved students, mostly black and Hispanic, working toward math and science careers. The summer after 7th grade, students spend three weeks on a college campus studying advanced math for seven hours a day. Over the next five years, the group helps the stu¬dents get into other elite summer math programs, liigh-perfonuing high schools, and eventually college. About 250 students so far have gone through the program, which receives funding from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.[M] “If you look at a lot of low-income communities in the United States, there are programs that are serving them, but they’re primarily centered around ‘Let’s get these kids’ grades up/ and not around ‘Let’s get these kids access to the same kinds of opportunities as more-affluent kids,”’ said Daniel Zaharopol, the founder and executive director of the program. “We’re trying to create that pathway.” Students apply to the program directly through their schools. “We want to reach parents who are not plugged into the system,” said Zaharopol.[N] In the past few years, MathCounts added two new middle school programs to try to diversify its participant pool—the National Math Club and the Math Video Challenge. Schools or teachers who sign up for the National Math Club receive a kit full of activities and resources, but there’s no spe¬cial teacher training and no competition attached.[O] The Math Video Challenge is a competition, but a collaborative one. Teams of four students make a video illustrating a math problem and its real-world application. After the high-pressure Countdown round at this year’s national MathCounts competition, in which the top 12 students went head to head solving complex problems in rapid fire, the finalists for the Math Video Challenge took the stage to show their videos. The demographics of that group looked quite different from those in the competition round—of the 16 video finalists, 13 were girls and eight were African-American students. The video challenge does not put individual students on the hot seat—so it’s less intimidating by de¬sign. It also adds the element of artistic creativity to attract a new pool of students who may not see themselves as “math people.”

Half of your brain stays alert and prepared for danger when you sleep in a new place, a study has revealed. This phenomenon is often（）to as the “first-night-effect”. Researchers from Brown University found that a network in the left hemisphere of the brain “remained more active” than the network in the right side of the brain. Playing sounds into the right ears (stimulating the left hemisphere) of （） was more likely to wake them up than if the noises were played into their left ears.It was（） observed that the left side of the brain was more active during deep sleep. When the researchers repeated the laboratory experiment on the second and third nights they found the left hemisphere could not be stimulated in the same way during deep sleep. The researchers explained that the study demonstrated when we are in a （） environment the brain partly remains alert so that humans can defend themselves against any （） danger.The researchers believe this is the first time that the “first-night-effect” of different brain states has been （） in humans. It isn’t, however, the first time it has ever been seen. Some animal （） also display this phenomenon. For example, dolphins, as well as other （） animals, shut down one hemisphere of the brain when they go to sleep. A previous study noted that dolphins always （） control their breathing. Without keeping the brain active while sleeping, they would probably drown. But, as the human study suggests, another reason for dolphins keeping their eyes open during sleep is that they can look out for （） while asleep. It also keeps their physiological processes working.

Directions: Suppose you are asked to give advice on whether to attend college at home or abroad, zvrite an essay to state your opinion. You are required to write at least 150 words but. no more than 200 words.

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