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Directions: For this part, you are required to write a composition of 150 words on the following topic. You are to write in three parts, in the first part, state clearly what your view is (just one specific item is enough). In the second part, support your view with appropriate reasons and measurements. In the last part, bring what you have written to a natural conclusion. You should write your composition on the answering sheet. Chinese Dream in My Heart

Directions: For this part, you are required to summarize the main idea of the following passage in plain language in about 50 words. You should write your summary on the answering sheet. Every product on the market has a variety of costs built into it before it is ever put up for sale to a customer. There are costs of production, transportation, storage, advertising, and more. Each of these costs must bring in some profit at each stage: truckers must profit from transporting products, or they would not be in business. Thus, costs also include several layers of profits. The selling price of a product must take all of these costs (and built-in profits) into consideration. The selling price itself consists of a markup over the total of all costs, and it is normally based on a percentage of the total cost. The markup may be quite high 90 percent of cost or it may be low. Grocery items in a supermarket usually have a low markup, while mink coat have a very high one. High markups, however, do not in themselves guarantee big profits. Profits come from turnover. If an item has a 50 percent markup and does not sell, there is no profit. But if a cereal has an 8 percent markup and sells very well, there are reasonable profits.While most pricing is based on cost factors, there are some exceptions. Prestige pricing means setting prices artificially high in order to attract select clientele. Such pricing attempts to suggest that the quality or style of the product is exceptional or that the item cannot be found elsewhere. Stores can use prestige pricing to attract wealthy shoppers.Leader pricing and bait pricing are the opposites of prestige pricing. Leader pricing means setting low prices on certain items to get people to come into the stores. The products so priced are called loss leaders because little or no profit can be made on them. The profits are made from other products people buy while in the store. Bait pricing, now generally considered illegal, means setting artificially low prices to attract customers. The store, however, has no intention of selling goods at the bait prices.The point is to get people into the store and persuade them of the inferiority of the low-priced item. Then a higher-priced item is presented as a better alternative,A common retail tactic is odd-priced products. For some products of $300, the store will set the price at $295 or $299.95 to give the appearance of a lower price. Automobiles and other high-priced products are usually priced in this manner. For some reason $7,995 has more appeal to a potential car customer than $8000.Bid pricing is a special kind of price setting. It is often used in the awarding of government contracts. Several companies are asked to submit bids on a job, and normally the lowest bidder wins. A school system may want to buy a large number of computers. Several companies are asked to submit prices, and the school district will decide on the best bid based as well on considerations of quality and service.

写给未来的自己一封信当你10年、20年或更多年后回顾过去时，你会吃惊地发现，随着时光的流逝，你也发生了很大的变化。你的经历、朋友、家庭和工作造就了现在的你。但是再过几年你会在哪里呢？你会如何变化呢？这样反思性的写作，会是思考未来你想要什么的一种好的方式。你也许以前试过给过去的自己写信，向年轻时的自己传授一些人生的智慧和观点，你希望那时候的自己就能知道这些。现在我们换个角度看问题，如果让你给未来的自己写封信，你会写点什么？想象一下，给5年后的自己写一封信，当5年后你打开那封信时，你会产生多少共鸣。这是实现目标的一种有用的辅助工具，因为当你给未来的自己写信时，你会慢慢理清希望自己在人生旅途的那个特定时刻变成什么样子。当你在未来读这封信时，你可以看看有多少事情是像你过去期望的那样，你也会思考为什么会这样。很多时候，我们设定目标在实现的过程中会受到沿途中各种因素的影响，因为会遇到各种各样的困难、各种意外情况并需要不断调整优先级。这封信能让你从宏观的角度上去看自己最初的愿景，让你意识到自己现在的想法和过去相比有多么不同。当你以后看信时，你会把过去的自己和现在的自己进行比较。这会让你看清从写信时起你发生了哪些变化，这种体验是非常有趣的。光看看从你写信开始发生了哪些变化就很有趣了。现在就拿出笔和纸，开始给未来的自己写封信吧。找个合适的时间，想象你在那段时间内会是什么样子，然后开始写信。想一想你想成为哪种人，你在生活中的位置、那时你的成就、你会有什么样的想法和感觉，诸如此类的内容。写完信，把它装到信封里，在信封的封面上写上日期，把它妥善保管起来。在自己的日历中标记一下打开这封信的日期。当你以后打开信时，你可能会更好地洞察自己以及自己过去的生命历程。

Like waistlines in many prosperous countries, cell phones are going XXL and some of their owners are struggling to tuck them in.Jeremy Roche, 47 years old, owns a Samsung Galaxy Note II phone that is about 75% larger than the original Apple Inc. iPhone, and roughly the size and heft of an extra-large Hershey’s chocolate bar, with about an inch nibbled off the end. It “did feel weird” at first to hold his big phone to his head for calls, he says, but now he loves his ample screen. After years of evolution from brick-size monstrosities into slim pocket devices, cell phones are going in reverse. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. is credited — or blamed 一 with bringing big phones back into the mainstream with devices like the original 5.3-inch Note, introduced outside the U.S. in late 2011.Some tech reviewers at the time derided the big phone as “silly”，and “a phone designed for giants.” But sales boomed, and other makers have followed with still-bigger “phablets”, as techies are beginning to call them—a cross between a phone and a tablet.Fares Fay ad, a 39-year-old consultant in Dubai, says he used to think a 3.5-inch cell phone screen was just right, until he tried the iPhone 5, which has a 4-inch screen. “I don’t believe I can go back to the slightly smaller screen,” Mr. Fay ad says,Some ergonomics experts worry lame phones could pose an injury risk. “As the stretch to reach all areas of the screen increases, we might start to see more serious repetitive stress injuries --- likely to the thumbs --- in larger touch-screen devices”, says Anthony Andre, a professor of human factors and ergonomics at San Jose State University.

While the United States waged its war on drugs, including the imposition of severe penalties on people convicted of possession of cannabis (marijuana and hashish), the Netherlands implemented a partial decriminalization of the personal use of these same drugs.Beginning in the mid-1970s, Dutch drug policies were reformed in an attempt to limit the negative and stigmatizing effects of drug use on individual users. The Dutch did this by making a clear separation between “hard” drugs—heroin, cocaine, LSD, and amphetamines—and “soft” drugs—marijuana, hashish, and mushrooms. They gave top law enforcement priority to controlling the production, importation, and trafficking of hard drugs and essentially ignored the sale or use of small amounts of cannabis (25 grams or less). Dutch officials believed that decriminalizing cannabis—thereby separating the soft drug market from the market for harder drugs―would reduce the likelihood that marijuana users would come into contact with heroin and cocaine users. Thus, young people experimenting with cannabis would be less likely to become involved with more dangerous or addictive drugs.The Dutch drug policies were also aimed at normalizing the drug problem. That is, the Dutch admitted that cannabis use had gained an extensive foothold in their society, and they felt that it was far more realistic to try to reduce the personal and social harms associated with drug use through education and “user-friendly” treatment programs than to rely on punitive measures.In Amsterdam, the country’s largest city, there are about 350 coffee shops where people can buy and use marijuana, hashish, and mushrooms. The coffee shops, however, are regulated. No other illegal drugs may be sold or used in them, the shops may not advertise, and they may not sell cannabis to people under age 16. Violations may result in fines and the closing of the coffee shop.The Dutch drug laws have been in effect for more than 20 years and any negative impact on Dutch society appears to have only been modest. However, it may not be wise to make direct comparisons between the Netherlands and the United States. Dutch society is very homogeneous; that is, there is little racial, ethnic, class, religious, or subcultural diversity, and the conventional values and norms of Dutch society are widely shared. American society, on the other hand, is very heterogeneous, and its extensive subcultural diversity leads to less consensus regarding norms and values. The model used by the Dutch for regulating marijuana may not work as effectively in the United States.1.The word “decriminalization” in the first paragraph means（）.2.Dutch officials thought that cannabis users （）. 3.Which of the following statements is NOT true?4.The author considers the Dutch drug policies （）. 5.From the passage, we can infer that（）.

By 2030, people over 65 in Germany, the world’s third-largest economy, will account for almost half the adult population, compared with one-fifth now. And unless the country’s birth rate recovers from its present low of 1.3 per woman, over the same period its population of under 35 will shrink about twice as fast as the older population will grow. The net result will be that the total population, now 82m, will decline to 70m-73m. The number of people of working age will fall by a full quarter, from 40m today to 30m.The German demographics are far from exceptional. In Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, the population will peak in 2005, at around 125m. By 2050, according to the more pessimistic government forecasts, the population will have shrunk to around 95m. Long before that, around 2030, the share of the over-65's in the adult population will have grown to about half. And the birth rate in Japan, as in Germany, is down to 1.3 per woman. The figures are pretty much the same for most other developed countries, and for a good many emerging ones, especially China.Life expectancy—and with it the number of older people—has been going up steadily for 300 years. But the decline in the number of young people is something new. The only developed country that has so far avoided this fate is America. But even there the birth rate is well below replacement level, and the proportion of older people in the adult population will rise steeply in the next 30 years. All this means that winning the support of older people will become a political imperative in every developed country. Pensions have already become a regular election issue. There is also a growing debate about the desirability of immigration to maintain the population and workforce. Together these two issues are transforming the political landscape in every developed country.By 2030 at the latest, the age at which full retirement benefits start will have risen to the mid-70’s in all developed countries, and benefits for healthy pensioners will be substantially lower than they are today. Indeed, fixed retirement ages for people in reasonable physical and mental condition may have been abolished to prevent the pension burden on the working population from becoming unbearable. Already young and middle-aged people at work suspect that there will not be enough pension money to go round when they themselves reach traditional retirement age. But politicians everywhere continue to pretend that they can save the current pensions system.1.In Germany,（）.2.The problem that the population becomes aging （）. 3.A new tendency is demographic change is that （）. 4.What is the political implication of the demographic change in the developed countries?5.By 2030 the governments in developed countries may put an end to fixed retirement ages （）.

One meaning of the Greek word “dran” is to accomplish, and in this meaning lies a further key to the structure of drama. A play concerns a human agent attempting to accomplish some purpose. In tragedy his attempt is, in personal terms at least, unsuccessful; in comedy it is successful; in the problem play final accomplishment is often either ambiguous or doubtful.This action, from the beginning to the end of a movement toward a purposed goal, must also have a middle; it must proceed through a number of steps, the succession of incidents which make up the plot. Because the dramatist is concerned with the meaning and logic of events rather than with their casual relationship in time, he will probably select his material and order it on a basis of the operation, in human affairs, of laws of cause and effect. It is in this causal relationship of incidents that the element of conflict, present in virtually all plays, appears.The central figure of the play, the protagonist encounters difficulties: his purpose or purposes conflict with events or circumstances, with purposes of other characters in the play, or with cross-purposes which exist within his own thoughts and desires. These difficulties threaten the protagonist’s accomplishment; in other words, they present complications, and his success or failure in dealing with these complications determines the outcome. Normally, complications build through the play in order of increasing difficulty; one complication may be added to another, or one may grow out of the solution of a preceding one. At some point in this chain of complication and solution, achieved or attempted, the protagonist performs an act or makes a decision which irrevocably commits him to a further course, points toward certain general consequences. This point is usually called the crisis; the complications and solutions which follow work out the logical steps from crisis to final resolution, or denouement.1.A drama is arranged mainly in accordance with（）.2.In the text, the author mainly deals with（）.

Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plans to market an English language edition of his elegant monthly art magazine, FMR, in the United States. Once again the skeptics are murmuring that the successful Ricci has headed for a big fall. And once again Ricci intends to prove them wrong.Ricci is so confident that he has christened his quest “Operation Columbus” and has set his sights on discovering an American readership of 300,000. That goal may not be too far-fetched. The Italian edition of FMR—the initials, of course, stand for Franco Maria Ricci —is only 18 months old. But it is already the second largest art magazine in the world, with a circulation of 65,000 and a profit margin of US $ 500,000. The American edition will be patterned after the Italian version, with each 160-pageissue carrying only 40 pages of ads and no more than five articles. But the contents will often differ. The English-language edition will include more American works, Ricci says, to help Americans get over “an inferiority complex about their art,” He also hopes that the magazine will become a vehicle for a two-way cultural exchange — what he likes to think of as a marriage of brains, culture and taste from both sides of the Atlantic.To realize this vision, Ricci is mounting one of the most lavish, enterprising—and expensive-promotional campaigns in magazine-publishing history. Between November and January, eight jumbo jets will fly 8 million copies of a sample 16-page edition of FMR across the Atlantic. From a warehouse in Michigan, 6.5 million copies will be mailed to American subscribers of various cultural, art and business magazines. Some of the remaining copies will circulate as a special Sunday supplement in the New York Times. The cost of launching Operation Columbus is a staggering US $ 5 million, but Ricci is hoping that 60% of the price tag will be financed by Italian corporations. “To land in America Columbus had to use Spanish sponsors,” reads one sentence in his promotional pamphlet. “We would like Italians.”Like Columbus, Ricci cannot know what his reception will be on foreign shores. In Italy he gambled— and won — on a simple concept: it is more important to show art than to write about it. Hence, one issue of FMR might feature 32 full-color pages of 17th-century tapestries, followed by 14 pages of outrageous eyeglasses. He is gambling that the concept is exportable. “I don’t expect that more than 30% of my reader... will actually read FMR,” he says. “The magazine is such a visual delight that they don’t have to.” Still, he is lining up an impressive stable of writers and professors for the American edition, including Noam Chomsky, Anthony Burgess, Eric Jong and Norman Mailer. In addition, he seems to be pursuing his own eclectic vision without giving a moment’s thought to such established competitors as Connoisseur and Horizon. “The Americans can do almost everything better than we can，” says Ricci, “But we (the Italians) have a 2,000 year edge on them in art.”1.Ricci intends his American edition of FMR to carry more American art works in order to（）.2.Ricci is compared to Columbus in the passage mainly because （）. 3.We get the impression that the American edition of FMR will probably（）.

We had been wanting to expand our children’s horizons by taking them to a place that was unlike anything we’d been exposed to during our travels in Europe and the United States. In thinking about what was possible from Geneva, where we are based, we decided on a trip to Istanbul, a two-hour plane ride from Zurich.We envisioned the trip as a prelude to more exotic ones, perhaps to New Delhi or Bangkok later this year, but thought our 11-and 13-year-olds needed a first step away from manicured boulevards and pristine monuments.What we didn’t foresee was the reaction of friends, who warned that we were putting our children “in danger,” referring vaguely, and most incorrectly, to disease, terrorism or just the unknown. To help us get acquainted with the peculiarities of Istanbul and to give our children a chance to choose what they were particularly interested in seeing, we bought an excellent guidebook and read it thoroughly before leaving.Friendly warnings didn’t change our planning, although we might have more prudently checked with the U.S. State Department’s list of trouble spots. We didn’t see a lot of children among the foreign visitors during our six-day stay in Istanbul, but we found the tourist areas quite safe, very interesting and varied enough even to suit our son, whose oft-repeated request is that we not see “every single” church and museum in a given city.Vaccinations weren’t needed for the city, but we were concerned about adapting to the water for a short stay. So we used bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth, a precaution that may seem excessive, but we all stayed healthy.Taking the advice of a friend, we booked a hotel a 20-minute walk from most of Istanbul’s major tourist sites. This not only got us some morning exercise, strolling over the Karakoy Bridge, but took us past a colorful assortment of fishermen, vendors and shoe shiners.From a teenager and pre-teen’s view, Istanbul street life is fascinating since almost everything can be bought outdoors. They were at a good age to spend time wandering the labyrinth of the Spice Bazaar, where shops display mounds of pungent herbs in sacks. Doing this with younger children would be harder simply because the streets are so packed with people; it would be easy to get lost. For our two, whose buying experience consisted of department stores and shopping mall boutiques, it was amazing to discover that you could bargain over price and perhaps end up with two of something for the price of one. They also learned to figure out the relative value of the Turkish lira, not a small matter with its many zeros.Being exposed to Islam was an important part of our trip. Visiting the mosques, especially the enormous Blue Mosque, was our first glimpse into how this major religion is practiced. Our children’s curiosity already had been piqued by the five daily calls to prayer over loudspeakers in every comer of the city, and the scarves covering the heads of many women.Navigating meals can be troublesome with children, but a kebab, bought on the street or in restaurants, was unfailingly popular. Since we had decided this trip was not for gourmets, kebabs spared us the agony of trying to find a restaurant each day that would suit the adults* desire to try something new amid children’s insistence that the food be served immediately. Gradually, we branched out to try some other Turkish specialties.Although our son had studied Islam briefly, it is impossible to be prepared for every awkward question that might come up, such as during our visits to the Topkapi Sarayi, the Ottoman Sultans' palace. No guides were available so it was do-it-yourself, using our guidebook, which cheated us of a lot of interesting history and anecdotes that a professional guide could provide. Next time, we resolved to make such arrangements in advance.On this trip, we wandered through the magnificent complex, with its imperial treasures, its courtyards and its harem. The last required a bit of explanation that we would have happily left to a learned third party.1.The couple chose Istanbul as their holiday destination mainly because（）.2.Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?3.We learn from the couple’s shopping experience back home that （）. 4.The last two paragraphs suggest that to visit places of interest in Istanbul （）. 5.The family have seen or visited all the following in Istanbul EXCEPT（）.

The earthquake of 26th December, 2004 resulted in one of the worst natural disasters in living memory. It was a（1）underwater quake and occurred in the Indian Ocean. It（2）coastlines, communities and brought death too many people.Why do earthquakes happen?The surface of the earth has not always looked as it does today; it is moving（3）(although very slowly) and has done so for billions of years. This is one （4） of earthquakes, when one section of the earth (tectonic plate) （5） another. Scientists can predict where but not （6）this might happen and the area between plates is called a fault line. On one fault line in Kobe, Japan in 1923 over 200,000 people were killed. （7） , earthquakes do not always happen on fault lines, （8）is why they are so dangerous and （9） .Where do volcanoes happen?Volcanoes happen where the earth’s （10） is thin: lava, dust and gases（11）from beneath the earth. They can rise into a huge cone shape like a mountain and erupt, （12）they can be so violent （13） they just explode directly from the earth with no warning. There are 1,511（14）volcanoes in the world. This means that they may （15）BE DANGEROUS. In 1985 the Colombian volcano Nevado Del Ruiz erupted. The lava melted a glacier and sent tones of mud （16）the town below. Twenty thousand people died.Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions are often unpredictable. We regularly do not know when they （17）happen, or （18）where they will happen. In the future, scientists may be able to watch and predict （19）before they happen. This could （20）many lives.

Directions: For this part, you are required to write a composition of 150 words on the following topic. You are to write in three parts. In the first part, state clearly what your view is. In the second part, support your view with appropriate reasons. In the last part, bring what you have written to a natural conclusion. You should write your composition on the answering sheet. Is the Spirit of Lei Feng out of Style?There are some voices claiming Lei Feng’s spirit has gone out of style in today’s society.

Directions: For this part, you are required to summarize the main idea of the following passage in plain language in about 50 words. You should write your summary on the answering sheet. Low self-esteem pops up regularly in academic reports as an explanation for all sorts of violence, from hate crimes and street crimes to terrorism. But despite the popularity of the explanation, not much evidence backs it. In a recent issue of Psychological Review, three researchers examine this literature at length and conclude that a much stronger link connects high self-esteem to violence. "It is difficult to maintain belief in the low self-esteem view after seeing that the more violent groups are generally the ones with higher self-esteem,” write Roy Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University and Laura Smart and Joseph Boden of the University of Virginia.The conventional view is that people without self-esteem try to gain it by hurting others. The researchers find that violence is much more often the work of people with unrealistically high self-esteem attacking others who challenge their self-image. Under this umbrella come bullies, rapists, psychopaths and members of street gangs and organized crime.The study concludes: “Certain forms of high self-esteem seem to increase one’s proneness to violence. An uncritical endorsement of the cultural value of self-esteem may therefore be counterproductive and even dangerous. The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm.”As for prison programs intended to make violent convicts feel better about themselves, “perhaps sit would be better to try instilling modesty and humility,” the researchers write.In an interview with the Boston Globe, Baumeister said he believes the “self’ promoting establishment is starting to crumble. “What would work better for the country is to forget about self-esteem and concentrate on self-control,” he said.In the schools, this would mean turning away from psychic boosterism and emphasizing self-esteem as a by-product of real achievement, not as an end in itself. The self-esteem movement, still entrenched in schools of education, is deeply implicated in the dumbing down of our schools, and in the spurious equality behind the idea that it is a terrible psychic blow if one student does any better or any worse than another. Let’s hope it is indeed crumbling.

世界上最幸福的十种工作很多职场新人都曾梦想找到一份理想工作，做喜欢的事，享受那份喜悦。而现实往往不尽如人意，人们总是抱怨着自己的工作。本文为你盘点了十种最幸福的工作。神职人员：最不谙世事的工作据说是最幸福的工作。消防员：消防员的工作能给人们提供帮助，而80%的消防员都表示对自己的工作“非常满意”。理疗师：社会互动和帮助他人明显使得这份工作是最幸福的工作之一。作家：对于大多数作家来说，他们的报酬少得可怜，或者根本没有，但是写下自己心中所想显然会带来快乐。特殊教育老师：如果你不在乎金钱，特殊教育老师这个工作或许是个幸福的职业。教师：尽管当前存在着教育经费和教室条件的问题，一般来说教师们还是感到自己的工作很幸福的。这一职业继续吸引着年轻的理想主义者，尽管有50%的新教师都在5年以内选择转行了。艺术家：雕刻家和画家据称是工作满意度最高的职业，尽管在这一职业上谋生有着相当大的困难。心理学家：心理学家不一定能解决其他人的问题，但是似乎他们已经解决了自己的问题。金融理财销售代理：据报道65%的金融理财销售代理认为自己的工作很幸福。这大概是因为他们中的一些人在舒服的办公环境中工作，每周工作40个小时，平均每年挣9万多美元。施工工程师：摆弄那些大型玩具可能是很有趣的，比如推土机、前载车、反铲挖土机、刮土机、平地机、装载机、起重机、大型水泵以及空气压缩机。同时施工工程师的工作供不应求，这使他们感觉很幸福。

In what appears to be the first reported case of its kind on US shores, a Colorado woman alleges that her iPhone 4 caught fire while charging overnight and wants Apple to warn customers of the device’s possible combustion issues.The woman, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said she took her story to tech website Mashable in order to spread public awareness over the reported issue, claiming that Apple has been reticent to acknowledge the alleged incident.The unnamed source claims that she awoke in the early morning during a recent trip to the east coast to find her year-old white iPhone 4 making “sizzling” and “popping” noises. After an unspecified amount of time there was “not quite an explosion, but an immense crackling”《》and smoke plumed from the device creating “an awful, putrid smell, almost like you were ingesting plastic of some kind”. Inspection of the provided pictures yields no clues as to which components were heated to the point of creating smoke, though a bulging battery is dearly seen to have expanded enough to force apart the iPhone’s casing.According to the report, the iPhone was connected via an Apple-branded charger to a power outlet that was later inspected and found to be working normally.The woman goes on to say that when she asked Apple to be upgraded to a replacement iPhone 4S, the company furnished her with another iPhone 4.The alleged incident is reportedly the first of its kind in the US; though there has been at least one similar instance in Australia involving the iPhone 4.This is not the first time Apple has seen problems with overhearing batteries as it extended are placement program for its first-generation iPod Nano in 2011 due to a defect that caused the device’s battery to overheat. The Cupertino, Calif., company first acknowledged the problem in a 2008 press release that stemmed from an investigation by the Japanese government.There have been no reports of severe overheating issues with the iPhone 4S or any other products in Apple’s current lineup.

This month Singapore passed a bill that would give legal teeth to the moral obligation to support one's parents. Called the Maintenance of Parents Bill, it received the backing of the Singapore Government.That does not mean it hasn't generated discussion. Several members of the Parliament opposed the measure as un-Asian. Others who acknowledged the problem of the elderly poor believed it is a proportionate response. Still others believe it will subvert relations within the family: cynics dubbed it the “Sue Your Son” law.Those who say that the bill does not promote filial responsibility, of course, are right. It has nothing to do with filial responsibility. It kicks in where filial responsibility fails. The law cannot legislate filial responsibility any more than it can legislate love. All the law can do is to provide a safety net where this morality proves insufficient. Singapore needs this bill not to replace morality, but to provide incentives to shore it up.Like many other developed nations, Singapore faces the problems of an increasing proportion of people over 60 years of age. Demography is inexorable. In 1980, 7.2% of the population was in this bracket. At the turn of the century that figure grew to 11%. By 2030, the proportion is projected to be 26%. The problem is not old age per se. It is that the ratio of economically active people to economically inactive people will decline.But no amount of government exhortation or paternalism will completely eliminate the problem of old people who have insufficient means to make ends meet. Some people will fall through the holes in any safety net.Traditionally, a person’s insurance against poverty in his old age was his family. This is not a revolutionary concept. Nor is it uniquely Asian. Care and support for one’s parents is a universal value shared by all civilized societies.The problem in Singapore is that the moral obligation to look after one’s parents is unenforceable. A father can be compelled by law to maintain his children. A husband can be forced to support his wife. But, until now, a son or daughter had no legal obligation to support his or her parents.In 1989, an Advisory Council was set up to look into the problems of the aged. Its report stated with a tinge of complacency that 95% of those who did not have their own income were receiving cash contributions from relations. But what about the 5% who aren't getting relatives' support? They have several options: (a) get a job and work until they die; (b) apply for public assistance (you have to be destitute to apply); or (c) starve quietly. None of these options is socially acceptable. And what if this5% figure grows, as it is likely to do, as society ages?The Maintenance of Parents Bill was put forth to encourage the traditional virtues that have so far kept Asian nations from some of the breakdowns encountered in other affluent societies. This legislation will allow a person to apply to the court for maintenance from any or all of his children. The court would have the discretion to refuse to make an order if it isunjust.Those who deride the proposal for opening up the courts to family lawsuits miss the point. Only in extreme cases would any parent take his child to court. If it does indeed become law: the bill’s effect would be far more subtle.1.The Maintenance of Parents Bill（）.2.By quoting the growing percentage points of the aged in the population, the author seems to imply that （）. 3.Which of the following statements is CORRECT?4.The author seems to suggest that traditional values （）. 5.The author thinks that if the Bill becomes law, its effect would be（）.

One argument used to support the idea that employment will continue to be the dominant form of work, and that employment will eventually become available for all who want it, is that working time will continue to fall. People in jobs will work fewer hours in the day, fewer days in the week, fewer weeks in the year, and fewer years in a lifetime, than they do now. This will mean that more jobs will be available for more people. This, it is said, is the way we should set about restoring full employment.There is no doubt that something of this kind will happen. The shorter working week, longer holidays, earlier retirement, job-sharing—these and other ways of reducing the amount of time people spend on their jobs—are certainly likely to spread. A mix of part-time paid work and part-time unpaid work is likely to become a much more common work pattern than today, and a flexi-life pattern of work-involving paid employment at certain stages of life, but not at others—will become widespread. But it is surely unrealistic to assume that this will make it possible to restore full employment as the dominant form of work.In the first place, so long as employment remains the overwhelmingly important form of work and source of income for most people, it is very difficult to see how reductions in employees’ working time can take place on a scale sufficiently large and at a pace sufficiently fast to make it possible to share out the available paid employment to everyone who wants it. Such negotiations as there have recently been, for example in Britain and Germany, about the possibility of introducing a 35-hour working week, have highlighted some of the difficulties. But, secondly, if changes of this kind were to take place at a pace and on a scale sufficient to make it possible to share employment among all who wanted it, the resulting situation—in which most people would not be working in their jobs for more than two or three short days a week―could hardly continue to be one in which employment was still regarded as the only truly valid form of work. There would be so many people spending so much of their time on other activities, including other forms of useful work, that the primacy of employment would be bound to be called into question, at least to some extent.1.The author uses the negotiations in Britain and Germany as an example to（）.2.At the end of the passage the author seems to imply that as a result of shorter working time （）. 3.The author’s attitude towards future full employment is generally （）.

Social change is more likely to occur in heterogeneous societies than in homogenous ones, simply because there are more diverse points of view available in the former. There are more conflicts of interest, and more groups and organization of different persuasions. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and tolerance in heterogeneous societies. All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision rather than subjecting them to authority. In a quite homogenous society, there are fewer occasions for people to perceive the need or the opportunity for change, because everything seems to be the same and, if not satisfactory, at least customary and undisputed.Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily (1) in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; (2) in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; (3) in the less basic, less emotional, or less sacred aspects of society than in their opposites, like religion or a system of prestige; (4) in the simple elements rather than in the complex ones. (5) In form rather than in substance; and (6) in elements congenial to the culture rather than in strange elements.Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily inhuman relations on a continuous scale rather than one with sharp dichotomies. This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black Americans as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white counterparts.1.According to the passage, the main difference between a homogenous society and a heterogeneous one lies in（）.2.The author would most probably agree that changes are more likely to be successful in（）.

The Sydney Olympics offered me an opportunity to learn more about staging a major multi-sport event and this knowledge, I felt, would stand me in good stead as I developed the media services that would be needed for our Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002.I also decided that working as a volunteer would give me a greater understanding of a whole range of issues, which is why I joined the ranks of those working in the front line.But little did I suspect just how much, the experience would offer me such powerful feeling and a strong sense of pride-emotions which influence the many memories that I took away with me when I left Sydney.As a woman volunteer, I am not usually keen on uniforms, but from the moment I put on my Sydney volunteer’s uniform I felt I was part of something important something big that could well be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I immediately bonded with others in the same uniform and as we passed each other in the street dressed in our colorful outfits, we smiled and said “G’day” to each other and those greetings continued throughout the two weeks of the Olympics.My job was as a supervisor in the Main Press Center where I managed 800 journalists' desks, the telephones, the banks of television and other volunteers, many of whom were media students. Our shifts were eight hours long and often overnight as the Center was open 24 hours, but we generally stayed longer out of choice as the work was important and exciting. Without us the journalists would not get their articles back to their home news desks and the stories of the emotional highs and lows of the competitors would never reach the outside world.As volunteers, we all felt our work was a valuable contribution to the success of the Olympics and we reveled in the compliments we received. We worked hard and we had fun. We made new contacts and friends from all over the world and we learned new skills which we will never lose.When the Olympics finished, all the volunteers — 47,000 of us 一 were invited to take part in a parade through the streets of Sydney. Many of us did this, and thousands and thousands of people came out to cheer our efforts. Being part of that experience brought tears to many eyes.The Olympics was marvelous, and the work I went to do is relevant and valuable to the job I do now. But the experience of being involved in such a massive event and the recognition we were given for our efforts is what I will remember forever.1.The author worked as in the Main Press Center of the Sydney Olympics( ).2.According to the author, her pride in being a volunteer in the Olympics increased all the( )more when she was .3.According to the passage, the shifts for the volunteers in the Main Press Center were often( ) hours long.4.The author felt that the work of the volunteers was( ) .5.What the author will remember forever about the Olympic volunteer job is( ) .

I remember meeting him one evening with his pushcart. I had managed to sell all my papers and was coming home in the snow. It has that strange hour in downtown New York when the workers were pouring homeward in the twilight. I marched among thousands of tired men and women whom the factory whistles had unyoked. They flowed in rivers through the clothing factory districts, then down along the avenues to the East Side.I met my father near Cooper Union. I recognized him, a hunched, frozen figure in an old overcoat standing by a banana cart. He looked so lonely; the tears came to my eyes. Then he saw me, and his face lit with his sad, beautiful smile ——Charlie Chaplin's smile.“Arch, it’s Mikey,” he said. “So you have sold your papers! Come and eat a banana.”He offered me one. I refused it. I felt it crucial that my father sell his bananas, not give them away. He thought I was shy, and coaxed and joked with me; and made me eat the banana. It smelled of wet straw and snow.“You haven’t sold many bananas today, pop, I said anxiously.He shrugged his shoulders.“What can I do? No one seems to want them.It was true. The work crowds pushed home morosely over the pavements. The rusty sky darkened over New York buildings, the tall street lamps were lit, innumerable trucks, street cars and elevated trains clattered by. Nobody and nothing in the great city stopped for my father’s bananas.“I ought to yell,” said my father dolefully. "I ought to make a big noise like other peddlers, but it makes my throat sore. Anyway, I’m ashamed of yelling. It makes me feel like a fool."I had eaten one of his bananas. My sick conscience told me that I ought to pay for it somehow. I must remain here and help my father.“I’ll yell for you, pop.” I volunteered,“Arch, no,’’ he said, “go home; you have worked enough today. Just tell momma I’ll be late.”But I yelled and yelled. My father, standing by, spoke occasional words of praise, and said I was a wonderful yeller. Nobody else paid attention. The workers drifted past us wearily, endlessly; a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home. Elevated trains crashed; the Cooper Union clock burned above us; the sky grew black, the wind poured, the slush burned through our shoes. There were thousands of strange, silent figures pouring over the sidewalks in snow. None of them stopped to buy bananas. I yelled and yelled, but nobody listened.My father tried to stop me at last. “Nu,” he said smiling to console me, “that was wonderful yelling, Mikey. But it’s plain we are unlucky today! Let’s go home.”I was frantic, and almost in tears. I insisted on keeping up my desperate yells.. But at last my father persuaded me to leave with him.1.“Unyoked” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to（）.2.Which of the following is intended to be a pair of contrast in the passage?3.Which of the following words is NOT suitable to describe the character of the son?4.What is the theme of the story?5.What is the author's attitude towards the father and the son?

It is all very well to blame traffic jams, the cost of petrol and the（1）pace of modern life, but manners on the roads are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men become monsters （2） the wheel. It is all very well, again, to have a tiger in the tank, but to have one in the driver’s seat is （3） matter altogether. You might tolerate the odd road-hog, the rude and inconsiderate driver, but nowadays the well-mannered motorist is the （4） to the rule. Perhaps the situation （5） a “Be Kind to Other Drivers” campaign, （6） it may get completely （7） .Road politeness is not only good manners, but good （8） too. It takes the most cool-headed and good-tempered of drivers to （9） the temptation to revenge when （10） to uncivilized behavior. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards （11） the tensions of motoring. A friendly nod or a wave of acknowledgement in （12） to an act of politeness helps to （13） an atmosphere of goodwill and tolerance so necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such acknowledgements of politeness are all too （14） today. Many drivers nowadays don’t even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.（15） , misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who brakes （16） to allow a car to emerge （17） aside street at some hazard to following traffic, （18） a few seconds later the road would be clear anyway; or the man who waves a child across a zebra （19） into the path of oncoming vehicles that may be unable to stop （20） .Years ago the experts warned us that the car-ownership explosion would demand a lot more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.

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