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Psychologists have known for a long time that economists are wrong. Most economists—at least, those of the classical persuasion—believe that any financial gain, however small, is worth having. But psychologists know this is not true. They know because of the ultimatum game, the outcome of which is often the rejection of free money.In this game, one player divides a pot of money between himself and another. The other then chooses whether to accept the offer. If he rejects it, neither player benefits. And despite the instincts of classical economics, a stingy (小气的) offer (one that is less than about a quarter of the total) is, indeed, usually rejected. The question is, why?One explanation of the rejectionist strategy is that human psychology is adapted for repeated interactions rather than one-off trades. In this case, taking a tough, if self-sacrificial, line at the beginning pays dividends in future rounds of the game. Rejecting a stingy offer in a one-off game is thus just a single move in a larger strategy. And indeed, when one-off ultimatum games are played by trained economists, who know all this, they do tend to accept stingy offers more often than other people would. But even they have their limits. To throw some light on why those limits exist, Terence Burnham of Harvard University recently gathered a group of students of microeconomics and asked them to play the ultimatum game. All of the students he recruited were men.Dr. Burnham’s research budget ran to a bunch of $40 games. When there are many rounds in the ultimatum game, players learn to split the money more or less equally. But Dr. Burnham was interested in a game of only one round. In this game, which the players knew in advance was final and could thus not affect future outcomes, proposers could choose only between offering the other player $25 (i.e. more than half the total) or $5. Responders could accept or reject the offer as usual. Those results recorded, Dr. Burnham took saliva (唾液) samples from all the students and compared the testosterone levels assessed from those samples with decisions made in the one-round game.As he describes in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, the responders who rejected a low final offer had an average testosterone level more than 50% higher than the average of those who accepted. Five of the seven men with the highest testosterone levels in the study rejected a $5 ultimate offer but only one of the 19 others made the same decision.What Dr. Burnham’s result supports is a much deeper rejection of the tenets of classical economics than one based on a slight mis-evolution of negotiating skills. It backs the idea that what people really strive for is relative rather than absolute prosperity. They would rather accept less themselves than see a rival get ahead. That is likely to be particularly true in individuals with high testosterone levels, since that hormone is correlated with social dominance in many species.Economists often refer to this sort of behavior as irrational. In fact, it is not. It is simply, as it were, differently rational. The things that money can buy are merely means to an end—social status—that brings desirable reproductive opportunities. If another route brings that status more directly, money is irrelevant.1. According to the passage, psychologists are different from economists in that .2. In the third paragraph, the sentence “In this case, taking a tough, if self-sacrificial, line at the beginning pays dividends in future rounds of the game.” means that .3. The result of Dr. Burnham’s study in the one-round game players shows that .4. The point Dr. Burnham has concluded from his study is that .5. Which one of the following statements is TRUE of the behavior of rejecting a low offer mentioned in the passage?

Let us suppose that you are in the position of a parent. Would you allow your children to read any book they wanted to without first checking its contents? Would you take your children to see any film without first finding out whether it is suitable for them? If your answer to these questions is “yes”, then you are either extremely permissive. If your answer is “no”, then you are exercising your right as a parent to protect your children from what you consider to be undesirable influences. In other words, by acting as a censor yourself, you are admitting that there is a strong case for censorship.Now, of course, you will say that it is one thing to exercise censorship where children are concerned and quite another to do the same for adults. Children need protection and it is the parents’ responsibility to provide it. But what about adults? Aren’t they old enough to decide what is good for them? The answer is that many adults are, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that all adults are like you. Censorship is for the good of society as a whole. Like the law, censorship contributes to the common good.Some people think that it is disgraceful that a censor should interfere with works of art. Who is this person, they say, to ban this great book or cut that great film? No one can set himself up as a superior being. But we must remember two things. Firstly, where genuine works of art are concerned, modern censors are extremely liberal in their views—often far more liberal than a large section of the public. Artistic merit is something which censors clearly recognize. And secondly, we must bear in mind that the great proportion of books, plays and films which come before the censor are very far from being “works of art”.When discussing censorship, therefore, we should not confine our attention to great masterpieces, but should consider the vast numbers of publications and films which make up the bulk of the entertainment industry. When censorship laws are relaxed, immoral people are given a license to produce virtually anything in the name of “art”. There is an increasing tendency to equate artistic with “pornographic”. The art market for pornography would rapidly be exploited. One of the great things that censorship does is to prevent certain people from making fat profits by corrupting the minds of others. To argue in favor of absolute freedom is to argue in favor of anarchy.Society would really be the poorer if it deprived itself of the wise counsel and the restraining influence which a censor provides.1. Permissive parents would .2. The fact that parents check the contents of the book or the film for their children to read or see shows .3. Which of the following statements is NOT true?4. What does the word “corrupt” mean?5. What would be the best title of this passage?

Barack Obama urged congressional leaders on Monday to act quickly to pass a huge stimulus package for the U.S. economy. He met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Later he met individually with Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and spoke to a bipartisan leadership gathering. In comments to reporters early on Monday, he underscored the urgency of finalizing economic legislation. “We have got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us,” he said. “We are expecting a sobering job report at the end of the week. Nancy Pelosi and her staff have been extraordinarily helpful in working with our team so that we can shape an economic recovery and reinvestment plan that starts putting people back to work.”Mr. Obama wants tax cuts for individual Americans and businesses to make up a significant portion of expected legislation. This could involve as much as $300 billion of a bill that is likely to exceed $700 billion and include aid to cash-poor U.S. states, and money for alternative energy and a range of infrastructure projects. Later, Mr. Obama said he expects to be able to sign legislation as soon as the end of this month, adding that quick action is necessary to “break the momentum of the U.S. recession”.Emerging later from bipartisan talks with Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers discussed with the president-elect how to pass a stimulus package as quickly as possible. “An economic recovery package that will create jobs immediately and will grow the economy and that is what we talked about today,” said Nancy Pelosi. “How we could do this fast, deliberatively and to act upon it soon.” Just how soon that would be, Pelosi would not say.How much support Democrats can obtain from Republicans will depend on the details. But the severity of the U.S. recession has created considerable bipartisan backing for quick action. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid said, “There are investments that we need to make on behalf of the American people to turn around this economy. We felt very good about the meeting; we are confident that we can do this and we have to do this.”“I think the best thing I can do is to decline to comment on what they are going to do going forward,” said Dana Perino. “Obviously, we think that tax cuts were the right way to help our economy get out of the recession that this president inherited and we know that tax cuts can spur innovation.” Asked by reporters how large the economic stimulus package might be, Senate Majority Leader Reid said President-elect Obama indicated that all but one of some 28 economists advising him had said it should range from $800 billion to $1.3 trillion.1. Barack Obama urged congressional leaders and met with bipartisan leaders for .2. The bill of economic legislation will be signed to help the following except .3. If the stimulus package is passed quickly and successfully, it can .4. What is the bipartisan leaders’ attitude towards this meeting?5. According to the passage, the best way out of the economic recession is .

Contrary to what many people believe, highly intelligent children are not necessarily destined for academic success. In fact, so-called gifted students may fail to do well because they are unusually smart. Ensuring that a gifted child reaches his or her potential requires an understanding of what can go wrong and how to satisfy the unusual learning requirements of extremely bright young people.One common problem gifted kids face is that they, and those around them, place too much importance on being smart. Such an emphasis can breed a belief that bright people do not have to work hard to do well. Although smart kids may not need to work hard in the lower grades, when the work is easy, they may struggle and perform poorly when the work gets harder because they do not make the effort to learn. If the scholastic achievement of highly intelligent children remains below average for an extended period, many teachers will fail to recognize their potential. As a result, such students may not get the encouragement they need, further depressing their desire to learn. They may fall far behind in their schoolwork and even develop behavior problems.IQ is just one ingredient among many in the recipe for success—Children thrive or struggle in school for a host of reasons apart from IQ. These include motivation and persistence, social competence, and the support of family, educators and friends. Emphasizing the importance of persistence and hard work, for example, will help a child avoid the laziness trap. Gifted children also need intellectual challenges—to teach them how to work hard.Because highly gifted children solve the most varied thought problems faster and more thoroughly than those with more average aptitudes do, they need additional intellectual stimulation while they wait for the rest of the kids to learn the basics. Two central approaches are used to satisfy the educational needs of such children: acceleration and enrichment. Acceleration means studying material that is part of the standard curriculum for older students. Enrichment involves learning information that falls outside the usual curriculum.A child might skip one or more grades as a way of accelerating in school. But being with older children for the entire school day—and perhaps for grade-based extracurricular activities such as sports—can make a child feel inferior in every realm outside of academics. One very bright fourth-grader who had skipped two grades remained far ahead of his classmates intellectually, but as his classmates reached puberty, his social and other shortcomings became painfully apparent. While acceleration is not an option, or not a good one, enrichment can be. After all, school is not a race but an adventure in learning. As such, the goal is not finishing first but absorbing as much knowledge as possible in the time allotted. Thus, providing opportunities for a child to study topics outside the regular curriculum can be at least as valuable as pushing him or her through the required material faster.1. According to the passage, which of the following belongs to enrichment activities for talented children?2. What makes the basic reason for the scholastic achievement of highly intelligent children being below average for an extended period?3. The example of the very bright fourth-grader mentioned in the last paragraph shows that the author believes .4. Which of the following conclusions do you think is in conformity with the author’s idea?5. In this article, the author is intended to .

Discoveries in science and technology are thought by “untaught minds” to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents. Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold (霉) on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then. He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery. Inventions and innovations almost always come out of laborious trial and error. Innovation is like soccer; even the best players miss the goal and have their shots blocked much more frequently than they score.The point is that the players who score most are the ones who take most shots at the goal—and so it goes with innovation in any field of activity. The prime difference between innovation and others is one of approach. Everybody gets ideas, but innovators work consciously on theirs, and they follow them through until they prove practicable or otherwise. What ordinary people see as fanciful abstractions, professional innovators see as solid possibilities.“Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done,” wrote Rudolph Flesch, a language authority. This accounts for our reaction to seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient: “How come nobody thought of hat before?”The creative approach begins with the proposition that nothing is as it appears. Innovators will not accept that there is only one way to do anything. Faced with getting from V to B, the average person will automatically set out on the best-known and apparently simplest route. The innovator will search for alternate courses, which may prove easier in the long run and are bound to be more interesting and challenging even if they lead to dead ends. Highly creative individuals really do march to a different drummer.1. What does the author probably mean by “untaught minds” in the first paragraph?2. According to the author, what differs innovators from non-innovators?3. The author quotes Rudolph Flesch in Paragraph 3 because .4. The phrase “march to a different drummer” (the last line of the passage) suggests that highly creative individuals are .5. The most suitable title for this passage might be __.

You hear the refrain all the time: the U.S. economy looks good statistically, but it doesn’t feel good. Why doesn’t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness? It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Affluent (富裕的) Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.The Affluent Society is a modern classic because it helped define a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, “hunger, sickness, and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. “Poverty was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.” After World War II, the dread of another Great Depression gave way to an economic boom. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.To Galbraith, materialism had gone mad and would breed discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or need. Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unfulfilling. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut down because people instinctively—and wrongly—labeled government only as “a necessary evil”.It’s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behind. Well, there are many undeserving rich—overpaid chief executives, for instance. But over any meaningful period, most people’s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, inflation-adjusted average family income rose 14.3 percent, to $43,200. People feel “squeezed” because their rising incomes often don’t satisfy their rising wants—for bigger homes, more health care, more education, faster Internet connections.The other great frustration is that it has not eliminated insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living. As corporate layoffs increased, that part has eroded. More workers tear they’ve become the disposable American as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name.Because so much previous suffering and social conflict stemmed from poverty, the arrival of widespread affluence suggested Utopian (乌托邦式的) possibilities. Up to a point, affluence succeeds. There is much less physical misery than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, affluence also creates new complaints and contradictions.Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens. But the quest for growth lets loose new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order. Affluence liberates the individual, promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-fulfillment. But the promise is so extravagant that it predestines many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown and obesity (肥胖症). Statistical indicators of happiness have not risen with incomes.Should we be surprised? Not really. We’ve simply reaffirmed an old truth: the pursuit of affluence does not always end with happiness.1. What question does John Kenneth Galbraith raise in his book The Affluent Society?2. According to Galbraith, people feel discontented because ______.3. Why do people feel squeezed when their average income rises considerably?4. What does Louis Uchitelle mean by “the disposable American”?5. What has affluence brought to American society?

In a purely biological sense, fear begins with the body’s system for reacting to things that can harm us—the so-called fight-or-flight response. “An animal that can’t detect danger can’t stay alive,” says Joseph LeDoux. Like animals, humans evolved with an elaborate mechanism for processing information about potential threats. At its core is a cluster of neurons (神经元) deep in the brain known as the amygdale (扁桃核).LeDoux studies the way animals and humans respond to threats to understand how we form memories of significant events in our lives. The amygdala receives input from many parts of the brain, including regions responsible for retrieving memories. Using this information, the amygdala appraises a situation—I think this charging dog wants to bite me—and triggers a response by radiating nerve signals throughout the body. These signals produce the familiar signs of distress: trembling, perspiration and fast-moving feet, just to name three.This fear mechanism is critical to the survival of all animals, but no one can say for sure whether beasts other than humans know they’re afraid. That is, as LeDoux says, “If you put that system into a brain that has consciousness, then you get the feeling of fear.”Humans, says Edward M. Hallowell, have the ability to call up images of bad things that happened in the past and to anticipate future events. Combine these higher thought processes with our hardwired danger-detection systems, and you get a near-universal human phenomenon: worry.That’s not necessarily a bad thing, says Hallowell. “When used properly, worry is an incredible device,” he says. After all, a little healthy worrying is okay if it leads to constructive action—like having a doctor look at that weird spot on your back.Hallowell insists, though, that there’s a right way to worry. “Never do it alone, get the facts and then make a plan,” he says. Most of us have survived a recession, so we’re familiar with the belt-tightening strategies needed to survive a slump.Unfortunately, few of us have much experience dealing with the threat of terrorism, so it’s been difficult to get facts about how we should respond. That’s why Hallowell believes it was okay for people to indulge some extreme worries last fall by asking doctors for Cipro (抗炭疽菌的药物) and buying gas masks.1. The “so-called fight-or-flight response” refers to .2. From the studies conducted by LeDoux we learn that .3. From the passage we know that .4. Which of the following is the best way to deal with your worries according to Hallowell?5. In Hallowell’s view, people’s reaction to the terrorist threat last fall was .

In this section, you are supposed to write a short composition within 40 minutes, and your composition should be no less than 150 English words. Your composition is based on the following information: Failures are as common as teeth brushing in our daily life. People treat failures with different attitudes. If I fail to be chosen the doctoral student in Sichuan Agricultural University this time, I would…

Attention to detail is something everyone can and should do especially in a tight job market. Bob Grossley, a human-resources expert notices this in the job applications that come across his desk every day. “It’s amazing how many candidates eliminate themselves.” He says.“Resume (简历) arrive with stains. Some candidates don’t bother to spell the company’s name correctly. On seeing such a mistake, I eliminate the candidate,” Crossley concludes. “If they cannot take of these details, why should we trust them with a job?”Can we pay too much attention to detail? Absolutely. Perfectionists struggle over little things at the cost of something larger they work toward. “To keep from losing the forest of the trees,” says Charles Garfield, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, “we must constantly ask ourselves how the details we’re working on fit into the larger picture. If they don’t, we should drop them and move to something else”.Knowing where we want to go helps us judge the importance of every task we undertake. Too often we believe what accounts for others’ success is some special secret or a lucky break (机遇). But rarely is success so mysterious. Again and again, we see that by doing little things within our grasp well, large rewards follow.

According to new research of Prof. Randolf Menzel from the Free University in Berlin, the popular image of bees as the ultimate hard workers was inaccurate. “Although we see bees buzzing around tirelessly in spring and summer, the common belief in a bee’s busy nature is based on a misconception,” he said. People only really see bees when they’re out flying, or they look at a colony of bees and see thousands of them buzzing around. They don’t get to pick them out as individuals. The professor, who this month won a German Zoological Society award for his work on bees, added that bees compensated for their apparent laziness with high intelligence, advanced memory skills and an ability to learn quickly.The suggestion that bees were not pulling their weight met with skepticism from British beekeepers. Glyn Davies, the President of the British Beekeepers Association, said that bees were not lazy but efficient, “At any particular stage in its energy by doing nothing. Each bee has a unit of life energy and the faster it works, the faster it dies. They are being very wise and perhaps humans should try to follow their example instead of running about like headless chickens.”The idea of the busy bee is several thousand years old. One current author who has nothing but admiration for the bee is Paul Theroux, the novelist and part-time beekeeper.” I have never seen a bee sleeping. My bees never stop working,” he said. Mr. Theroux added that Prof. Menzel’s research could have been affected by his national origins. “Perhaps in comparison to the German rate of work, the bee does look lazy,” he said.Few people think that the busy bee idea will go away, despite the efforts of Prof. Menzel. It seems absurd to apply the word “lazy” to a colony of creatures capable of producing something so extraordinary as honeycomb. The truth is that bees give us an inferiority complex that is not entirely unjustified. In fact, the worship of bees seems to be undergoing a renaissance. IBM recently ran a series of ads drawing on the “waggle dance” of bees, telling businessmen to “make your business waggle.”1. Prof. Randolf Menzel’s latest research .2. Prof. Randolf Menzel would disagree that .3. According to Glyn Davies, what should we learn from bees?4. It could be inferred from Paragraph 3 that the Germans .5. The IBM ads in the passage are used to .

Is life today more dangerous than it used to be? It certainly seems that way. With the radiation emitted by our houses, the arsenic (砷) in the water and the toxic rays coming out of cell phones, it isn’t really safe to sleep, drink or talk. Last week the entire Metro system in Washington had to close down because someone might be blown onto the tracks during a hurricane. This week children in Washington were not allowed to go to school for a whole day because streets were blocked by fallen trees and power lines, and traffic lights at some intersections weren’t working. A previous generation might have walked around the fallen trees and looked both ways before crossing the street, but the children of this generation clearly live in a much more dangerous world, and we need to protect them.After Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of people swore off airplanes and began driving cars. In fact, the odds of being killed in a terrorist incident in 2002 were one in 9 million. In that same year, the odds of dying in a traffic accident were about one in 7,000.By taking the precaution of not flying, many people died.There are some clear psychological explanations for some of this. It’s a fact that people fear man-made disasters (terrorism) far more than they fear natural disasters (hurricanes), and they are more afraid of things they do not control, which is why driving a car does feel safer than flying in an airplane. Also, although I have no proof, I’ll hazard a guess that people are disproportionately frightened by things they read about in the newspaper. By contrast, they are disproportionately willing to discount the evidence of their own experience. If you look around your neighborhood, you’ll notice that the water is clean—which it wouldn’t necessarily have been 100 years ago—and that the food isn’t rotten or stale.Life is far safer for the average American than it ever has to just about anybody at any other time in human history—and maybe that explains the ludicrous precautions that city officials and federal bureaucrats and everyone else feels obligated to take nowadays to satisfy the public’s demands. Now that we’ve eliminated most of the things that the human race once feared, we’ve just invented new ones to replace them.1. Children are not allowed to go to school for the following reasons EXCEPT .2. It can be learned from the passage that the previous generation .3. Which is the accepted psychological explanation for people’s fear as mentioned in the passage?4. It is indicated in the passage that in the past .5．The author believes that .

Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard patterns into which they plug each day’s events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.There exists a social and cultural disconnection between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the “standard patterns” of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-sized cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses (奔驰车), and trade stocks, and they are less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn’t rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums (讨论会) and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.1. The passage is mainly about .2. The results of the journalism credibility project turned out to be .3. As for the survey, which of the following statements is true?4. The basic problem of journalists as pointed out by the writer lies in their .5. Despite its efforts, the newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its .

Just about 40% of employees and managers in a North American survey said they know how they can increase their base pay or cash bonuses. The results suggest employers lose much of the value of the pay raises and bonuses they distribute by not communicating effectively. “Many employees and managers simply don’t understand why they get paid what they do,” points out Rob Heneman, professor of management and human resources, Ohio State University, Columbus. “Businesses can’t get a good return of their compensation investment if people don’t understand how their pay is determined.”The survey of more than 6,000 managers and employees in 26 organizations in the U.S. and Canada showed that employees and managers felt their employers did a good job explaining their performance objectives and the way their performance is measured. They were unclear, though, about how performance was related to pay. Surprisingly, employees reported they knew more about stock options at their companies and how they are determined than how base pay is. However, the results showed that base pay knowledge plays a larger role in overall pay satisfaction than do other forms of compensation, such as bonuses. Employees who had higher levels of pay knowledge showed greater overall pay satisfaction, which, in turn, was linked to higher levels of retention (聘用) commitment to the company, and even trust in management. In other words, Heneman emphasizes, ensuring that employees understand their pay is good for a company’s bottom line.He feels that corporate culture is often a major problem in dealing with the lack of pay knowledge among workers. In many companies, it is considered taboo—or even explicitly forbidden—to discuss matters dealing with salary. In lieu of (代替) disclosing actual pay amounts of employees to others within the company, management can provide more information about pay practices and policies, such as the process used to determine salary, and the average of raises in a particular year. Workers want more than generalities; they want to know how pay policies apply to their particular situation, Heneman points out. That often means managers need to sit down with their employees one-on-one.1. What does the North American Survey mainly suggest?2. The employers of many companies failed to .3. Which of the following is the most important factor in overall pay satisfaction?4. The employees who understand and are satisfied with their pay would .5. What can employers do to help their employees know better how pay is determined?

It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling. Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or on the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions. People are engaged in education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one’s entire life.Schooling, on the other hand, is specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.1. What is the main idea of the passage?2. What does the author probably mean by using the expression “Children interrupt their education to go to school” (Sent. 2, Para. 1)?3. The phrase “For example,” (Sent. 4, Para. 3), introduces a sentence that gives examples of .4. The passage supports which of the following conclusions?5. The passage is organized by .

For decades, arms-control talks centered on nuclear weapons. This is hardly surprising, since a single nuclear bomb can destroy an entire city. Yet, unlike smaller arms, these immensely powerful weapons have not been used in war in over 50 years.Historian John Keegan writes: “Nuclear weapons have, since August 9, 1945, killed no one. The 50,000,000 who have died in war since that date have for the most part, been killed by cheap, mass-produced weapons and small ammunition, costing little more than the transistor radios which have flooded the world in the same period. Because small weapons have disrupted life very little in the advanced world, outside the restricted localities where drug-dealing and political terrorism flourish, the populations of the rich states have been slow to recognize the horror that this pollution has brought in its train.Why have small arms become the weapons of choice in recent wars? Part of the reason lies in the relationship between conflict and poverty. Most of the wars fought during the 1990s took place in countries that are poor—too poor to buy sophisticated weapon systems. Small arms and light weapons are a bargain. For example, 50 million dollars, which is approximately the cost of a single modern jet fighter, can equip an army with 200,000 assault rifles.Another reason why small weapons are so popular is that they are lethal. A single rapid-fire assault rifle can fire hundreds of rounds a minute. They are also easy to use and maintain. A child of ten can be taught to strip and reassemble a typical assault rifle. A child can also quickly learn to aim and fire that rifle into a crowd of people.The global traffic in guns is complex. The illegal trade of small arms is big. In some African wars, paramilitary groups have bought billions of dollars’ worth of small arms and light weapons, not with money, but with diamonds seized from diamond-mining areas.Weapons are also linked to the illegal trade in drugs. It is not unusual for criminal organizations to use the same routes to smuggle drugs in one direction and to smuggle guns in the other.1. It is implied in the passage that .2. The advanced world neglect the problems of small arms because .3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as the reason for the prevalence of small arms?4. We can conclude from the passage that .5. The best title for this passage is .

Researchers have established that when people are mentally engaged, biochemical changes occur in the brain that allow it to act more effectively in cognitive areas such as attention and memory. This is true regardless of age.People will be alert and receptive if they are faced with information that gets them to think about things they are interested in. And someone with a history of doing more rather than less will go into old age more cognitively sound than someone who has not had an active mind.Many experts are so convinced of the benefits of challenging the brain that they are putting the theory to work in their own lives. “The idea is not necessarily to learn to memorize enormous amounts of information,” says James Fozard, associate director of the National Institute on Again. “Most of us don’t need that kind of skill. Such specific training is of less interest than being able to maintain mental alertness.” Fozard and others say they challenge their brains with different mental skill, both because they enjoy them and because they are sure that their range of activities will help the way their brains work.Gene Cohen, acting director of the same institute, suggests that people in their old age should engage in mental and physical activities individually as well as in groups. Cohen says that we are frequently advised to keep physically active as we age, but older people need to keep mentally active as well. Those who do are more likely to maintain their intellectual abilities and to be generally happier and better adjusted. “The point is, you need to do both,” Cohen says. “Intellectual activity actually influences brain-cell health and size.”1. People who are cognitively healthy are those .2. According to Fozard’s argument people can make their brains work more efficiently by .3. The findings of James and other scientists in their work .4. Older people are generally advised to .5. What is the passage mainly about?

People tend to be more impressed by evidence that seems to confirm some relationship. Thus many are convinced their dreams are prophetic because a few have come true; they neglect or fail to notice the many that have not.Consider also the belief that “the phone always rings when I’m in the shower.” If it does ring while you are in the shower, the event will stand out and be remembered. If it doesn’t ring, that nonevent probably won’t even register (留下印象).People want to see order, pattern and meaning in the world. Consider, for example, the common belief that things like personal misfortunes, plane crashes, and deaths “happen in threes.” Such beliefs stem from the tendency of people to allow the third event to define the time period. If three plane crashes occur in a month, then the period of time that counts as their “happening together” is one month; if three crashes occur in a year, the period of time is stretched. Flexible end points reinforce such beliefs.We also tend to believe what we want to believe. A majority of people think they are more intelligent, more fair-minded and more skilled behind the wheel of an automobile than the average person. Part of the reason we view ourselves so favorably is that we use criteria that work to our advantage. As economist Thomas Schilling explains, “Everybody ranks himself high in qualities he values: careful drivers give weight to care, skilled drivers give weight to skill, and those who are polite give weight to courtesy.” This way everyone ranks high on his own scale.Perhaps the most important mental habit we can learn is to be cautious in drawing conclusions. The “evidence” of everyday life is sometimes misleading.1. In the first paragraph the author states that .2. By “things like…” “happen in threes”, the author indicates that people believe .3. The word “courtesy” probably means .4. What can be inferred from the passage?5. It can be concluded from the passage that .

In this section, you are supposed to write a short composition within 40 minutes, and your composition should be no less than 150 English words. Your composition is based on the following information:Influences of the World-wide Financial Crisis on Chinese Economic Development1. General description of the world-wide financial crisis2. The negative effects on Chinese economic development3. The positive effects on Chinese economic development4. A summary

1. Although many people claim that, along with the rapidly economic development, the number of people who use bicycle are decreasing and bicycle is bound to die out. The information I’ve collected over the recent years leads me to believe that bicycle will continue to play extremely important roles in modern society.2. There is a general discussion these days over education in many colleges and institutes. One of the questions under debate is whether education is a lifetime study.3. These days, people in growing numbers are beginning to complain that work is more stressful and less leisurely than in the past. Many experts point out that, along with the development of modern society, it is an inevitable result and there is no way to avoid it.4. Many people believe that international tourism produce positive effects on economic growth and local government should be encouraged to promote international tourism.5. Any parents should place considerable emphasis on their children to keep the balance between play and study. As an old saying goes: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

The most interesting architectural phenomenon of the 1970s was the enthusiasm for refurbishing old buildings. Obviously, this was not an entirely new phenomenon. What is new is the wholesale interest in reusing the past, in recycling in adaptive rehabilitation. A few trial efforts, such as Ghirardelli square in San Francisco, proved their financial viability in 1960s, but it was in the 1970s, with strong government support through tax incentives and rapid depreciation. As well as growing interest in ecology issues, that recycling became a major factor on the urban scene.One of the most comprehensive ventures was the restoration and transformation of Boston’s eighteenth century Faneuil Hall and the Quincy Market, designed in 1824. This section had fallen on hard times, but beginning with the construction of a new city hall immediately adjacent, it has returned to life with the intelligent reuse of these fine old buildings under the design leadership of Benjamin Thomson. He has provided a marvelous setting for dining, shopping, professional offices, and simply walking.Butler Square, in Minneapolis, exemplifies major changes in its complex of offices, commercial space, and public amenities carved out of a massive pile designed in 1906 as a hardware warehouse. The exciting interior timber structure of the building was highlighted by cutting light courts through the interior and adding large skylights.San Antonio, Texas, offers an object lesson for numerous other cities combating urban decay. Rather than bringing in the bulldozers, San Antonio’s leaders rehabilitated existing structures, while simultaneously cleaning up the San Antonio River, which menders through the business district.1. What is the main idea of the passage?2. What is the space at Quincy Market now used for?3. According to the passage, Benjamin Thomson was the designer for a project in ______.4. When was the Butler Square building originally built?5. What is the author’s opinion of the San Antonio project?

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