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Directions: For this part you are required to summarize the main idea of the following passage in no more than 80 words. Write your summary on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)Buying things today is so simple. Just enter a shop, say a book store, choose the desired book and pay for it. Long ago, before the invention of money, how did people trade? The most primitive way of exchange should be the barter trade. In this form of transaction, people used goods to exchange for the things that they had in mind. For instance, if person A wanted a book and he had a spare goat, he had to look for someone who had the exact opposite, that is, that someone, say person B, had a spare book of person A’s choice and was also in need of a goat. Having found such a person, the problem did not end there. A big goat might be worth not only one book, hence person B might have to offer person A something else, say five chickens. However, he would run the risk of person A rejecting the offer as he might not need the chickens. The above example clearly illustrates the inefficiency of barter trading.Many years later, the barter trade finally gave way to the monetary form of exchange when the idea of money was invented. In the early days, almost anything could qualify as money: beads, shells and even fishing hooks. Then in a region near Turkey, gold coins were used as money. In the beginning, each coin had a different denomination. It was only later, in about 700 BC, that Gyges, the king of Lydia, standardized the value of each coin and even printed his name on the coins. Monetary means of transaction at first beat the traditional barter trade. However, as time went by, the thought of carrying a heavy pouch of coins for shopping appeared not only troublesome but thieves attracting. Hence, the Greek and Roman traders who bought goods from people in faraway cities invented checks to solve the problem. Not only were paper checks easy to carry around, they discouraged robbery as these checks could only be used by the person whose name was printed on the notes. Following this idea, banks later issued notes in exchange for gold deposited with them. These bank notes could then be used as cash. Finally, governments of today adopted the idea and began to print paper money, backed by gold for the country’s use. Today, besides enjoying the convenience of using paper notes as the mode of exchange, technology has led man to invent other means of transaction too like the credit and cash cards.

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When Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched the facebook.com in Feb. 2004, even he could not imagine the forces it would let loose. His intent was to connect college students. Facebook, which is what this website rapidly evolved into, ended up connecting the world. To the children of this connected era, the world is one giant social network. They are not bound — as were previous generations of humans — by what they were taught. They are only limited by their curiosity and ambition. During my childhood, all knowledge was local. You learned everything you knew from your parents, teachers, preachers, and friends. With the high-quality and timely information at their fingertips, today’s children are rising normally tame middle class is speaking up against social ills. Silicon Valley executives are being shamed into adding women to their boards. Political leaders are marshalling the energy of millions for elections and political causes. All of this is being done with social media technologies that Facebook and its competitors set free. As does every advancing technology, social media has created many new problems. It is commonly addictive and creates risks for younger users. Social media is used by extremists in the Middle East and elsewhere to seek and brainwash recruits. And it exposes us and our friends to disagreeable spying. We may leave our lights on in the house when we are on vacation, but through social media we tell criminals exactly where we are, when we plan to return home, and how to blackmail (敲诈) us. Regardless of what social media people use, one thing is certain: we are in a period of accelerating change. The next decade will be even more amazing and unpredictable than the last. Just as no one could predict what would happen with social media in the last decade, no one can accurately predict where this technology will take us. I am optimistic, however, that a connected humanity will find a way to uplift itself. 1. What was the purpose of Facebook when it was first created? 2. What difference does social media make to learning?3. What is the author’s greatest concern with social media technology?4. What does the author think of social media as a whole?

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At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they’re bad. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants’ impact on the economy and the reality?There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented immigrants place on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation’s fears and insecurities. There’s some truth to all these explanations, but they aren’t quite sufficient.To get a better understanding of what’s going on; consider the way immigration’s impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most directly from immigrants’ low-cost labor are businesses and employers — meatpacking plants in Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers’ savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Boras, a Harvard economist, immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9% between1980-2000.1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?2. In what way does the author think ordinary Americans benefit from immigration?3. Why do native low-skilled workers suffer most from illegal immigration?

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Apparently everyone knows that global warming only makes climate more extreme. A hot, dry summer has triggered another flood of such claims. And, while many interests are at work, one of the players that benefits the most from this story are the media: the notion of “extreme” climate simply makes for more compelling news.Consider Paul Krugman writing breathlessly in The New York Times about the “rising incidence of extreme events,” He claims that global warming caused the current drought in America’s Midwest, and that supposedly record-high corn prices could cause a global food crisis.But the United Nations climate panel’s latest assessment tells us precisely the opposite. For “North America there is medium confidence that there has an overall slight tendency toward less dryness” Moreover, there is no way that Krugman could have identified this drought as being caused by global warming without a time machine; Climate models estimate that such detection will be possible by 2048, at the earliest.And, fortunately, this year’s drought appears unlikely to cause a food crisis, as global rice and wheat supplies retain plentiful. Moreover, Krugman overlooks inflation: Prices have increased six-fold since 1969. So, while corn futures (期货) did set a record of about $8 per bushel (葡式耳) in late July, the inflation-adjusted price of corn was higher throughout most of the 1970s, reaching 516 in 1974.Finally, Krugman conveniently forgets that concerns about global warming are the main reason that corn prices have skyrocketed since 2005. Nowadays 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is used to produce ethanol (乙醇), which does absolutely nothing for the climate, but certainly distorts the price of corn — at the expense of many of the world’s poorest people.1. In what way do the media benefit from extreme weather?2. What is the author’s comment on Krugman’s claim about the current drought in America’s Midwest?3. What is the chief reason for the rise in corn prices according to the author?

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In the early 20th century, few things were more appealing than the promise of scientific knowledge. In a world struggling with rapid industrialization, science and technology seemed to offer solutions to almost every problem. Newly created state colleges and universities devoted themselves almost entirely to scientific, technological, and engineering fields. Many Americans came to believe that scientific certainty could not only solve scientific problems, but also reform politics, government, and business. Two world wars and a Great Depression rocked the confidence of many people that scientific expertise alone could create a prosperous and ordered world. After World War Ⅱ, the academic world turned with new enthusiasm to humanistic studies, which seemed to many scholars the best way to ensure the survival of democracy. American scholars fanned out across much of the world — with support from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright program, etc. — to promote the teaching of literature and the arts in an effort to make the case for democratic freedoms.In the America of our own time, the great educational challenge has become an effort to strengthen the teaching of what is now known as the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and math). There is considerable and justified concern that the United States is falling behind much of the rest of the developed world in these essential disciplines. India, China, Japan, and other regions seem to be seizing technological leadership.At the same time, perhaps inevitably, the humanities — while still popular in elite colleges and universities — have experienced a significant decline. Humanistic disciplines are seriously underfunded, not just by the government and the foundations but by academic institutions themselves. Humanists are usually among the lowest-paid faculty members at most institutions and are often lightly regarded because they do not generate grant income and because they provide no obvious credentials (资质) for most nonacademic careers.Undoubtedly American education should train more scientists and engineers. Much of the concern among politicians about the state of American universities today is focused on the absence of “real world” education — which means preparation for professional and scientific careers. But the idea that institutions or their students must decide between humanities and science is false. Our society could not survive without scientific and technological knowledge. But we would be equally impoverished (贫困的) without humanistic knowledge as well. Science and technology teach us what we can do. Humanistic thinking helps us understand what we should do.It is almost impossible to imagine our society without thinking of the extraordinary achievements of scientists and engineers in building our complicated world. But try to imagine our world as well without the remarkable works that have defined our culture and values. We have always needed, and we still need, both.1. In the early 20th century Americans believed science and technology could( ).2. Why did many American scholars become enthusiastic about humanistic studies after World War Ⅱ?3. Why are American scholars worried about education today?4. What accounts for the significant decline in humanistic studies today?5. Why does the author attach so much importance to humanistic studies?

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Air pollution is deteriorating in many places around the world. The fact that public parks in cities become crowded as soon as the sun shines proves that people long to breathe in green, open spaces. They do not all know what they are seeking but they flock there, nevertheless. And, in these surroundings, they are generally both peaceful and peaceable. It is rare to see people fighting in a garden. Perhaps struggle unfolds first, not at an economic or social level, but over the appropriation of air, essential to life itself.If human beings can breathe and share air, they don’t need to struggle with one another. Unfortunately, in our western tradition, neither materialist nor idealist theoreticians give enough consideration to this basic condition for life. As for politicians, despite proposing curbs on environmental pollution, they have not yet called for it to be made a crime. Wealthy countries are even allowed to pollute if they pay for it.But is our life worth anything other than money? The plant world shows us in silence what faithfulness to life consists of. It also helps us to a new beginning, urging us to care for our breath, not only at a vital but also at a spiritual level. The interdependence to which we must pay the closest attention is that which exists between ourselves and the plant world. Often described as “the lungs of the planet”, the woods that cover the earth offer us the gift of breathable air by releasing oxygen. But their capacity to renew the air polluted by industry has long reached its limit. If we lack the air necessary for a healthy life, it is because we have filled it with chemicals and undercut the ability of plants to regenerate it. As we know, rapid deforestation combined with the massive burning of fossil fuels is an explosive recipe for an irreversible disaster.The fight over the appropriation of resources will lead the entire planet to hell unless humans learn to share life, both with each other and with plants. This task is simultaneously ethical and political because can be discharged only when each takes it upon herself or himself and only when it is accomplished together with others. The lesson taught by plants is that sharing life expands and enhances the sphere of the living, while dividing life into so-called natural or human resources diminishes it. We must come to view the air, the plants and ourselves as the contributors to the preservation of life and growth, rather than a web of quantifiable objects or productive potentialities at our disposal. Perhaps then we would finally begin to live, rather than being concerned with bare survival.1. What does the author assume might be the primary reason that people would struggle with each other?2. What does the author accuse western politicians of?3. What does the author try to draw our closest attention to?4. How can human beings accomplish the goal of protecting the planet according to the author?5. What does the author suggest we do in order not just to survive?

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Organized volunteering and work experience has long been a vital companion to university degree courses. Usually it is left to(1)to deduce the potential from a list of extracurricular adventures on a graduate’s resume,(2)now the University of Bristol has launched an award to formalize the achievements of students who(3)time to activities outside their courses. Bristol Plus aims to boost students in an increasingly(4)job market by helping them acquire work and life skills alongside(5)qualifications.“Our students are a pretty active bunch, but we found that they didn’t(6)appreciate the value of what they did(7)the lecture hall,” says Jeff Goodman, director of careers and employability at the university. “Employers are much more(8)than they used to be. They used to look for(9)and saw it as part of their job to extract the value of an applicant’s skills. Now they want students to be able to explain why those skills are(10)to the job.”Students who sign(11)for the award will be expected to complete 50 hours of work experience or(12)work, attend four workshops on employ-ability skills, take part in an intensive skills-related activity(13), crucially, write a summary of the skills they have gained.(14)efforts will gain an Outstanding Achievement Award. Those who(15)best on the sports field can take the Sporting plus Award which fosters employer-friendly sports accomplishments.The experience does not have to be(16)organized. “We’re not just interested in easily identifiable skills,” says Goodman. “(17), one student took the lead in dealing with a difficult landlord and so(18)negotiation skills. We try to make the experience relevant to individual lives.”Goodman hopes the(19)will enable active students to fill in any gaps in their experience and encourage their less-active(20)to take up activities outside their academic area of work.

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Directions: For this part you are required to summarize the main idea of the following passage in no more than 80 words. Write your summary on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)We all know what we mean by a “good” man. The ideally good man does not drink or smoke, avoids bad language, attends church regularly, and holds the correct opinions on all subjects. He has a wholesome horror of wrongdoing, and realizes that it is our painful duty to castigate Sin. He has a still greater horror of wrong thinking, and considers it the business of the authorities to safeguard the young against those who question the wisdom of the views generally accepted by middle-aged successful citizens. Apart from his professional duties, at which he is assiduous, he spends much time in good works: he may encourage patriotism and military training; he may promote industry, sobriety, and virtue among wage-earners and their children by seeing to it that failures in these respects receive due punishment; he may be a trustee of a university and prevent an ill-judged respect for learning from allowing the employment of professors with subversive ideas. Above all, of course, his “morals”, in the narrow sense, must be irreproachable.Among politicians good men have their uses, the chief of which is to afford a smoke-screen behind which others can carry on their activities unsuspected. A good man will never suspect his friends of shady actions: this is part of his goodness. A good man will never be suspected by the public of using his goodness to screen villains: this is part of his utility. It is clear that this combination of qualities makes a good man extremely desirable wherever a somewhat narrow-minded public objects to the transference of public funds into the hands of the deserving rich. I am told—though far be it from me to endorse this statement—that at a not very distant period in history there was an American President who was a good man and served this purpose.Another of the uses of good men is that any undesirables can be kept out of politics by means of scandals. Ninety-nine men out of a hundred commit breaches of the moral law, but in general this fact does not become public. And when in the ninety ninth case it becomes known in relation to any individual, the one man in the hundred who is genuinely innocent expresses genuine horror, while the other ninety-eight are compelled to follow suit for fear of being suspected. When, therefore, any man of obnoxious opinions ventures into politics, it is only necessary for those who have the preservation of our ancient institutions at heart to keep track of his private activities until they discover something which, if exposed, will ruin his political career. They then have three courses open to them: to make the facts known and cause him to disappear in a cloud of obloquy; or to derive for themselves a comfortable income by means of blackmail. Of these three courses the first two protect the public, while the third protects those who protect the public. All three, therefore, are to be commended, and all three are only rendered possible through the existence of good men.Another way in which good men can be useful is by getting themselves murdered. The Archduke who was murdered at Sarajevo was, I believe, a good man; and how grateful we ought to be to him! If he had not died as he did, we might not have had the war, and then the world would not have been made safe for democracy, nor would militarism have been overthrown, nor should we be now enjoying military despotisms in Spain, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria.To speak seriously: the standards of “goodness” which are generally recognized by public opinion are not those which are calculated to make the world a happier place. This is due to a variety of causes, of which the chief is tradition, and the next most powerful is the unjust power of dominant classes. Primitive morality seems to have developed out of the notion of taboo; that is to say, it was originally purely superstitious, and forbade certain perfectly harmless acts on the supposed ground that they produced disaster by magical means. In this way there came to be prohibitions, which continued to have authority over people’s feelings when the supposed reasons for them were forgotten. A considerable part of current morals is still of this sort: certain kinds of conduct produce emotions of horror, quite regardless of the question whether they have bad effects or not. In many cases the conduct which inspires horror is in fact harmful; if this were not the case, the need for a revision of our moral standards would be more generally recognized. Murder, for example, can obviously not be tolerated in a civilized society; yet the origin of the prohibition of murder is purely superstitious. It was thought that the murdered man’s blood(or, later, his ghost) demanded vengeance, and might punish not only the guilty man, but any one who showed him kindness. The superstitious character of the prohibition of murder is shown by the fact that it was possible to be purified from blood-guiltiness by certain ritual ceremonies, which were apparently designed, originally, to disguise the murderer so that the ghost would not recognize him. This, at least, is the theory of Sir J. G. Frazer. When we speak of repentance as “washing out” guilt we are using a metaphor derived from the fact that long ago actual washing was used to remove blood-stains. Such notions as “guilt” and “sin” have an emotional background connected with this source in remote antiquity. Even in the case of murder a rational ethic will view the matter differently: it will be concerned with prevention and cure, as in the case of illness, rather than with guilt, punishment, and expiation.Our current ethic is a curious mixture of superstition and rationalism. Murder is an ancient crime, and we view it through a mist of age-long horror. Forgery is a modern crime, and we view it rationally. We punish forgers, but we do not feel them strange beings set apart, as we do murderers. And we still think in social practice, whatever we may hold in theory, the virtue consists in not doing rather than in doing. The man who abstains from certain acts labeled “sin” is a good man, even though he never does anything to further the welfare of others. This, of course, is not the attitude inculcated in the Gospels: “Love the neighbor as thyself” is a positive precept. But in all Christian communities the man who obeys this precept is persecuted, suffering at least poverty, usually imprisonment, and sometimes death. The world is full of injustice, and those who profit by injustice are in a position to administer rewards and punishments. The rewards go to those who invent ingenious justifications for inequality, the punishments to those who try to remedy it. I do not know of any country where a man who has a genuine love for his neighbor can long avoid obloquy. In Paris, just before the outbreak of the war, Jean Jaures, the best citizen of France, was murdered; the murderer was acquitted, on the ground that he had performed a public service. This case was peculiarly dramatic, but the same sort of thing happens everywhere.Those who defend traditional morality will sometimes admit that it is not perfect, but contend that any criticism will make all morality crumble. This will not be the case if the criticism is based upon something positive and constructive, but only if it is conducted with a view to nothing more than momentary pleasure. To return to Bentham: he advocated, as the basis of morals, “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” A man who acts upon this principle will have a much more arduous life than a man who merely obeys conventional precepts. He will necessarily make himself the champion of the oppressed, and so incur the enmity of the great. He will proclaim facts which the powers wish to conceal; he will deny falsehoods designed to alienate sympathy from those who need it. Such a mode of life does not lead to a collapse of genuine morality. Official morality has always been oppressive and negative: it has said “thou shalt not”, and has not troubled to investigate the effect of activities not forbidden by the code. Against this kind of morality all the great mystics and religious teachers have protested in vain: their followers ignored their most explicit pronouncements. It seems unlikely, therefore, that any large-scale improvements will come through their methods.More is to be hoped, I think, from the progress of reason and science. Gradually men will come to realize that a world whose institutions are based upon hatred and injustice is not the one most likely to produce happiness. The later war taught this lesson to a few, and would have taught it to many more if it had ended in a draw. We need a morality based upon love of life, upon pleasure in growth and positive achievement, not upon repression and prohibition. A man should be regarded as “good” if he is happy, expansive, generous, and glad when others are happy; if so, a few peccadilloes should be regarded as of little importance. But a man who acquires a fortune by cruelty and exploitation should be regarded as at present we regard what is called an “immoral” man; and he should be so regarded even if he goes to church regularly and gives a portion of his ill-gotten gains to public objects. To bring this about, it is only necessary to instill a rational attitude towards ethical questions, instead of the mixture of superstition and oppression which still passes muster as “virtue” among important personages. The power of reason is thought small in these days, but I remain an unrepentant rationalist. Reason may be a small force, but it is constant, and works always in one direction, while the forces of unreason destroy one another in futile strife. Therefore every orgy of unreason in the end strengthens the friends of reason, and shows afresh that they are the only true friends of humanity.

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No one can be a great thinker who does not realize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more even by the errors of one who with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. No that it is solely, of chiefly, to form great thinkers that freedom of thinking is required. On the contrary, it is as much or even more indispensable to enable average human beings to attain the mental stature which they are capable of. There have been, and may again be, great individual thinkers in a general atmosphere of mental slavery. But there never has been, nor ever will be, in that atmosphere an intellectually active people. Where any of heterodox speculation was for a time suspended, where there is a tacit convention that principles are not to be disputed: where the discussion of the greatest questions which can occupy humanity is considered to be closed, we cannot hope to find that generally high scale of mental activity which has made some periods of history so remarkable. Never when controversy avoided the subjects which are large and important enough to kindle enthusiasm was the mind of a people stirred up from its foundation and the impulse given which raised even persons of the most ordinary intellect to something of the dignity of thinking beings.He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons of the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that, he is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels the most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should heat the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. That is not the way to do justice to the arguments, or bring them into real contact with his own mind, he must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form: he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of; else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. Ninety-nine in a hundred of what are called educated persons are in this condition; even of those who can argue fluently for their opinions. Their conclusion may be true, but it might be false for anything they know; they have never thrown themselves into the mental position of those who think differently from them and considered what such persons may have to say; and consequently they do not, in any proper sense of the word, know the doctrines which they themselves profess.1. The best title for this passage is( ).2. According to the author, it is always advisable to( ).3. According to the author, in a great period such as the Renaissance we may expect to find( ).4. According to the author, which of the following statements is true?

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The solar system is made up of the objects that move around our sun in a regular path. Things were not always this way. The sun and the objects that encircle it started out in a very different form.It is believed that our solar system began as a large cloud of gas and dust. The cloud had a round shape and spun slowly. The spinning caused the gas and dust to flatten into a large disc. The mass of gas and dust at the center became the sun. The gas and dust were pulled together by gravity so that nuclear reactions started. The rest of the dust and gas outside of this moved so slowly that it started to cling together in places. Eventually, enough material stuck together to form planets.There are many different objects in our solar system. Of course, there are planets. Each one is unique. Some planets are made of rock or metal elements. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are like this. Other planets are more like gas and ice. Jupiter, Saturn, and the others are like this. The planets have moons — sometimes more than one.Our solar system has a major asteroid belt. An asteroid is basically a rock. The largest is about 10km across. Huge numbers of these rocks circle the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Sometimes the asteroids crash into each other and move towards Earth. When they pass near our planet, they heat up and burn. We see them as shooting stars.Lastly, there are comets which are made of ice and gas. They also go around the sun but not with a normal path. When they are near the sun, they start to melt and form a tail. Far from the sun, where space is cold, the comets remain frozen solid.1. All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 2 EXCEPT( ).2. The word this in paragraph 3 refers to( ).3. According to paragraph 4, what happens when an asteroid burns near our planet?

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The long, wet summer here in the northeastern U.S. notwithstanding, there’s a world shortage of pure, fresh water. As demand for water hits the limits of finite supply, potential conflicts are brewing between nations that share transboundary freshwater reserves.Many people ask why we cannot simply take it from the sea, using our sophisticated technology of desalinization. But a good water supply must be hygienically safe and pleasant tasting and water containing salt would corrode machinery used in manufacturing in addition to producing chemical impurities. Since more than 95% of our water sits in the salty seas, man is left to face the reality that most water on the surface of the earth is not available for us.One very feasible way of sustaining our supply of freshwater is to protect the ecology of our mountains. Mountains and water go together, a fact to which Secretary General Kofi Annan has drawn attention more than once. From 30% to 60% of downstream fresh water in humid areas and up to 95% in arid and semi-arid environments are supplied by mountains. Without interference nature has its own way of purifying water—even though chlorination and filtration are still necessary as a precaution. In a mountainous area, aeration, due to turbulent flow and waterfalls, causes an exchange of gases between the atmosphere and the water. Agriculture, industry, hydroelectric generators and homes that need water to drink and for domestic use depend on these resources and, thus, we must protect mountainous areas as a means of survival.1. The author of this text states that( ).2. The author believes that industry avoids salt water because( ).3. The best title for this text is( ).

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Travel operator Sandersley is different from most of its rivals. UK package holiday companies are operating in a very competitive market. In an effort to attract trade, they are forced to spend enormous sums on marketing. Although big travel companies try hard to create attractive brands, if you ask the customers delayed at airports, many aren’t even sure which company they’ve booked with. Asking customers of Sandersley, however, they would say this is probably their third or fourth holiday with the company.A Sandersley holiday doesn’t come cheap; but for their customers this isn’t an issue. A high proportion of its customers are families, because the adults are free to enjoy the activities on offer, while small children are in the care of people employed by Sandersley just for this purpose. These nannies get free flights and meals on top of their pay.Interestingly, most of the company’s senior managers began at the bottom: for example, Carol Fletcher, the Marketing Manager, came as a ski guide in 1985, went away to set up her own catering business, sold it for a considerable sum, and returned to Sandersley in the late 1990s.The company’s performance over the years means that it gets a steady stream of offers from large tour operators wanting to buy the company. Jerry Baker, who started the firm, came very close to selling it for £30 million a few years ago. But at the last minute, Garmond, the potential buyer, was itself taken over by an American travel company which didn’t see a place for Sandersley in the group.Despite greatly increasing its turnover in the past four years, the company has a careful attitude to expansion. Its decision not to sell skiing holidays in North America proved the right one when many of its rivals failed to persuade British travelers to take the ten-hour flight. Learning from experiences like these, Sandersley’s two recent departures from its main activity are the acquisitions of restaurant chains in Spain and in Turkey.1. Sandersley differs from most other UK travel operators in( ).2. The company attracts families because( ).3. In what way is Carol Fletcher typical of the company’s senior staff?4. Sandersley was not sold because( ).5. What is Sandersley’s strategy for expansion?

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The new miracle of the medical world is the stem cell, a marvel of human nature in that it can become any of nearly 220 cell types that constitute the human body. It is often called a blank cell that can be programmed to become other cells. Researchers predict that, by using stem cells, they can create organs that can be transplanted into people who desperately need them to save their lives. The most common source of stem cells is the human embryo, the initial stage of human life after a female egg is impregnated by a male sperm. In this very fact lies an ethical conundrum that has rocked both the medical and political landscape of the United States and other countries. Coupled with this is new research in cloning, which has seen some success in developing animal species without the use of normal birthing procedures. All of these areas of research are making quite a few people nervous about both the sources of stem cells and where the research is taking mankind.Most stem cell-containing embryos come from four different sources: fertility clinics, which often store more human embryos than are needed; fetuses from unwanted pregnancies that are aborted; therapeutic cloning, which is when a human egg is stimulated into an embryo-like state; and custom-fertilization, in which a human egg is deliberately fertilized with sperm to create an embryo in order to harvest its stem cells. Morally, many people are outraged by these sources, claiming that human life is not something that should be tampered with and created just for scientific and medical purposes. At the core of this debate is the issue of what really constitutes a human being, with one side claiming a human does not exist until born rom its mother while the other side claims that once egg and sperm meet, life has begun.The United States government has taken an active role in the debate and is consciously looking at the voting booth while making decisions regarding stem cell research. The government gave the go-ahead for federal spending on stem cell research but limited activity to specimens that already existed, meaning no new embryos could be created solely for stem cell research. Similar laws regarding cloning research have been proposed, including therapeutic cloning. Many universities and research centers worry that these laws may cause their best and brightest scientists to seek appointments overseas, where stem cell research is not so controversial.Scientists now seek non-embryonic sources of stem cells to avoid the controversy in the future and to allow them to carry out their work without interference. Unfortunately, so far the search has not unearthed any sources that are as perfect as human embryo stem cells. The main reason they are not perfect is that, while embryo stem cells can become any other cell, other stem cells from different sources can only become limited types of cells. Research suggests that inside each person there is a limited supply of stem cells in the blood that are used to repair red blood cells when they are damaged. Some scientists believe they may be able to harvest these cells, but results so far have had limited success in extracting and using them to produce other cells. Even the limited successes they have had are being questioned by other experts as unproven. Two other sources, baby teeth and adult bone marrow, show some possibilities, but again the research is being questioned, and, as of yet, no positive new source of stem cells has been found to replace human embryos.In view of the ethical debate that surrounds stem cell research, especially its sources of stem cells, it is likely that it will be some time before the whole issue is laid to rest. Meanwhile, countless people suffer from illnesses that could be cured or their pain alleviated by the work that comes from stem cell research. Some people believe that the debate about when human life actually begins needs to take a backseat to the issue of when human life will end, especially when it is possible to save someone from an early death. In the end, the research will likely get done in a place that puts existing human life above that in the embryonic state. It is also highly unlikely that that place will be the United States.1. According to paragraph 1, a stem cell is unlike other cells because( ).2. According to paragraph 2, the main debate concerning stem cell sources revolves around( ).3. According to paragraph 3, American universities and research institutes are worried about( ).4. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in paragraph 3. Incorrect answer choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.5. It can be inferred from paragraph 5 that in many countries stem cell research( ).

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Sociologists use the term “power” to refer to the(1)of people or groups to control or influence the actions of others,(2)those others wish to cooperate or not. Sociologists study power to determine not only who exercises it and who(3)from its use, but also why it is exercised.Of the three main types of(4)—wealth, power, and prestige—power is the hardest to measure. Most studies of power are(5)more than an average of guesses about where power is found. Many forms of power are so well(6)that only the power holders know their source. Because it is so hard to measure and(7)it is so tied to questions of ideology, the subject of power—who holds it and how it is used—is a source of much debate(8)sociology. Some sociologists maintain that power in America is concentrated in(9)of a few people who have a common background and who tend to act together. Wright Mills suggested that America is run by a “power elite” and set(10)total number at no more than 300 people. Other sociologists believe that power in America is(11)among many groups and people. However, Sociologists(12)agree that real power may not always lie where we think it does. The mayors of some cities,(13), are sometimes mere figureheads who simply look impressive. The actual decisions are made by a handful of business leaders who stay(14)the scenes. And some decisions are made at the lowest level,(15)the work is really carried. Such is the case with a policeman on the beat or a teacher in the classroom. Clearly, power(16)exist without wealth: Not all the rich are powerful, and not all the powerful are rich. But the two(17)are closely related. Wealth can sometimes buy power in international politics, for instance, candidates(18)office are often wealthy. The Kennedy brothers, the three Rockefeller governors are examples of men of(19)who have become powerful in politics. Moreover, power is often used to acquire wealth. How many lawmakers or labor union heads retired in(20)?

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