根據(jù)下列短文，回答36-46題。
The secret to happiness is keeping busy, research has found. Keeping the mind 36 with tasks-no matter how meaningless-staves off(趕走) negative emotions, the study found.
However, the bad news is that humans seem hard-wired (天生的) to be lazy in order to save energy, according to Professor Christopher Hsee, a behavioral scientist at Chicago University.
In a study 98 students were asked to complete two surveys. After they had completed the first they were made to wait 15 minutes to receive the next one. They were given a choice of either handing in the first 37 nearby or at a more distant location they had to walk to. Whichever option they chose, they received a chocolate bar. Two- thirds (68 per cent) chose the lazy 38 . Those who had taken the walk reported feeling happier than those who bad stayed 39
Prof Hsee 40 keeping busy helped keep people happy. He said the findings, reported in the journal Psychological Science, had policy 41 "Governments may increase the happiness of idle citizens by having them build bridges that are 42 useless," he proposed. At the individual Ievel, he advised, "Get up and do something. Anything. Even if there really is no point to what you are doing, you will feel better for it. " He 43 , "Incidentally, thinking deeply or engaging in self-reflection 44 as keeping busy, too. You do not need to be running around--you just need to be 45 , either physically or mentally. "
A. study
B. added
C. thought
D. option
E. engaged
F. especially
G. increased
H. implications
I. survey
J. solutions
K. occupied
L. concluded
M. counts
N. put
O. actually
第36空答案為( )。
37、第37空答案為( )。
38、第38空答案為( )。
39、第39空答案為( )。
40、第40空答案為( )。
41、第41空答案為( )。
42、第42空答案為( )。
43、第43空答案為( )。
44、第44空答案為( )。
45、第45空答案為( )。 Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
46、
根據(jù)下列短文，回答46-56題。
Into the Unknown
The world has never seen population ageing before. Can it cope?
A. Until the early 1990s nobody much thought about whole populations getting older. The UN had the foresight to convene a "world assembly on ageing" back in 1982, but that came and went. By 1994 the World Bank had noticed that something big was happening. In a report entitled "Averting the Old Age Crisis", it argued that pension arrangements in most countries were unsustainable.
B. For the next ten years a succession of books, mainly by Americans, sounded the alarm. They had titles like Young vs Old, Gray Dawn and The Coming Generational Storm, and their message was blunt: health-care systems were heading for the rocks, pensioners were taking young people to the cleaners, and soon there would be intergenerational warfare.
C. Since then the debate has become less emotional, not least because a lot more is known about the subject.Books, conferences and research papers have multiplied. International organisations such as the OECD and the EU issue regular reports. Population ageing is on every agenda, from G8 economic conferences to NATO summits. The World Economic Forum plans to consider the future of pensions and health care at its prestigious Davos conference early next year. The media, including this newspaper, are giving the subject extensive coverage.
D. Whether all that attention has translated into sufficient action is another question. Governments in rich countries now accept that their pension and health-care promises will soon become unaffordable, and many of them have embarked on reforms, but so far only timidly. That is not surprising: politicians with an eye on the next election will hardly rush to introduce unpopular measures that may not bear fruit for years, perhaps decades.
E. The outline of the changes needed is clear. To avoid fiscal (財(cái)政的) meltdown, public pensions and health- care provision will have to be reined back severely and taxes may have to go up. By far the most effective method to restrain pension spending is to give people the opportunity to work longer, because it increases tax revenues and reduces spending on pensions at the same time. It may even keep them alive longer. John Rother, the AARP's head of policy and strategy, points to studies showing that other things being equal, people who remain at work have lower death rates than their retired peers.
F. Younger people today mostly accept that they will have to work for longer and that their pensions will be less generous. Employers still need to be persuaded that older workers are worth holding on to. That may be because they have had plenty of younger ones to choose from, partly thanks to the post-war baby-boom and partly because over the past few decades many more women have entered the labour force, increasing employers' choice. But the reservoir of women able and willing to take up paid work is running low, and the baby-boomers are going grey.
G. In many countries immigrants have been filling such gaps in the labour force as have already emerged (and remember that the real shortage is still around ten years off). Immigration in the developed world is the highest it has ever been, and it is making a useful difference. In still-fertile America it currently accounts for about 40% of total population growth, and in fast-ageing western Europe for about 90%.
H. On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution. Many developing countries have lots of young people in need of jobs; many rich countries need helping hands that will boost tax revenues and keep up economic growth. But over the next few decades labour forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice their current size in western Europe's most outhful countries, and three times in the older ones. Japan would need a large multiple of the few immigrants it has at present. Public opinion polls show that people in most rich countries already think that immigration is too high. Further big increases would be politically unfeasible.
I. To tackle the problem of ageing populations at its root, "old" countries would have to rejuvenate (使年輕)themselves by having more of their own children. A number of them have tried, some more successfully than others. But it is not a simple matter of offering financial incentives or providing more child care. Modem urban life in rich countries is not well adapted to large families. Women find it hard to combine family and career. They often compromise by having just one child.
J. And if fertility in ageing countries does not pick up? It will not be the end of the world, at least not for quite a while yet, but the world will slowly become a different place. Older societies may be less innovative and more strongly disinclined to take risks than younger ones. By 2025 at the latest, about half the voters in America and most of those in western European countries will be over 50-and older people turn out to vote in much greater number than younger ones. Academic studies have found no evidence so far that older voters have used their power at the ballot box to push for policies that specifically benefit them, though if in future there are many more of them they might start doing so.
K. Nor is there any sign of the intergenerational warfare predicted in the 1990s. After all, older people themselves mostly have families. In a recent study of parents and grown-up children in 11 European countries, Karsten Hank of Marmheim University found that 85% of them lived within 25km of each other and the majority of them were in touch at least once a week.
L. Even so, the shift in the centre of gravity to older age groups is bound to have a profound effect on societies, not just economically and politically but in all sorts of other ways too. Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of America's CSIS, in a thoughtful book called The Graying of the Great Powers, argue that, among other things, the ageing of the developed countries will have a number of serious security implications. M) For example, the shortage of young adults is likely to make countries more reluctant to commit the few they have to military service. In the decades to 2050, America will find itself playing an ever-increasing role in the developed world's defence effort. Because America's population will still be growing when that of most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed country that still matters geopolitically
(地緣政治上).
Ask me in 2020
N) There is little that can be done to stop population ageing, so the world will have to live with it. But some of the consequences can be alleviated. Many experts now believe that given the right policies, the effects, though grave,need not be catastrophic. Most countries have recognised the need to do something and are beginning to act.
O) But even then there is no guarantee that their efforts will work. What is happening now is historically unprecedented. Ronald Lee, director of the Centre on the Economics and Demography of Ageing at the University of California, Berkeley, puts it briefly and clearly: "We don't really know what population ageing will be like, because nobody has done it yet. "
Employers should realise it is important to keep older workers in the workforce.
47、 A recent study found that most old people in some European countries had regular weekly contact with their adult children.
48、 Few governments in rich countries have launched bold reforms to tackle the problem of population ageing.
49、 In a report published some 20 years ago, the sustainability of old age pension systems in most countries was called into doubt,
50、 Countries that have a shortage of young adults will be less willing to send them to war.
51、 One-child families are more common in ageing societies due to the stress of urban life and the difficulties of balancing family and career.
52、 A series of books, mostly authored by Americans, warned of conflicts between the older and younger generations.
53、 Compared with younger ones, older societies tend to be less innovative and take fewer risks.
54、 The best solution to the pension crisis is to postpone the retirement age.
55、 Immigration as a means to boost the shrinking labour force may meet with resistance in some rich countries. Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D ). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
56、根據(jù)下列短文，回答56-61題。
Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you're not an investor in one of those hedge funds that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to a 26-year low against the pound, already- expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $8.
The once all-powerful dollar isn't doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar.
The weak dollar is a source of humiliation (屈辱), for a nation's self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It's also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S. economy--from giant companies like Coca-Cola to morn-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami--for which the weak dollar is most excellent news.
Many Europeans may view the U.S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak. Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico--as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals can't afford to join the merrymaking.
The money tourists spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So do exports, which, thanks in part to the weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006 and May 2007. For the first five months of 2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent from 2006.
If you own shares in large American corporations, you're a winner in the weak-dollsr gamble. Last week Coca-Cola's stock bubbled to a five-year high after it reported a fantastic quarter. Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent of Coke's beverage (飲料) business. Other American companies profiting from this trend include McDonald's and IBM.
American tourists, however, shouldn't expect any relief soon. The dollar lost strength the way many marriages break up--slowly, and then all at once. And currencies don't turn on a dime. So if you want to avoid the pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic dollar, cancel that summer vacation to England and look to New England. There, the dollar is still treated with a little respect.
Why do Americans feel humiliated?
A.Their economy is plunging.
B.Their currency has slumped.
C.They can't afford trips to Europe.
D.They have lost half of their assets.
57、 How does the current dollar affect the life of ordinary Americans?
A.They have to cancel their vacations in New England.
B.They find it unaffordable to dine in morn-and-pop restaurants.
C.They have to spend more money when buying imported goods.
D.They might lose their jobs due to potential economic problems.
58、 How do many Europeans feel about the U.S. with the devalued dollar?.
A.They feel contemptuous of it.
B.They are sympathetic with it.
C.They regard it as a superpower on the decline.
D.They think of it as a good tourist destination.
59、 What is the author's advice to Americans?
A.They treat the dollar with a little respect.
B.They try to win in the weak-dollar gamble.
C.They vacation at home rather than abroad.
D.They treasure their marriages all the more.
60、 What does the author imply by saying "currencies don't turn on a dime" (Line 2, Pare. 7)?
A.The dollar's value will not increase in the short term.
B.The value of a dollar will not be reduced to a dime.
C.The dollar's value will drop, but within a small margin.
D.Few Americans will change dollars into other currencies.
61、 根據(jù)下列短文，回答{TSE}題。
In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We're pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resunes so they can get into the college of our first choice. Fee twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids' college background as a prize demonstrating how well we've raised them. But we can't acknowledge that our obsession (癡迷) is more about us than them. So we've contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn't matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won't be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria (歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible-and mostly wrong. We haven't found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don't systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures---professors' feedback and the number of essay exams---selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, "selective schools do enhance their graduates' lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school's average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke (偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it's not the only indicator and, paradoxically, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college isn't life's only competition. In the next competition---the job market and graduate school--the results may change. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of prestigious universities didn't.
So, parents, lighten up. The stakes have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A.They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B.They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C.They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D.They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
62、 Why do parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever?
A.They want to increase their children's chances of entering a prestigious college.
B.They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C.Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D.Elite universities now enroll fewer students than they used to.
63、 what does the author mean by "Kids count more than their colleges. " (Line 1, Para. 4)?
A.Continuing education is more important to a person's success.
B.A person's happiness should be valued more than their education.
C.Kids' actual abilities are more important than their college backgrounds.
D.what kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
64、 what does Krueger's study tell us?
A.Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B.Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C.Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D.Connections built in prestigious universities may be sustained long after graduation.
65、 One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that _______.
A.they earn less than their peers from other institutions
B.they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C.they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation
D.they overemphasize their qualifications in job applications Part VI Translation (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
66、中國(guó)新年是中國(guó)最重要的傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日，在中國(guó)也被稱(chēng)為春節(jié)。新年的慶?；顒?dòng)從除夕開(kāi)始一直延續(xù)到元宵節(jié)(the Lantern Festival)，即從農(nóng)歷(lunlar calendar)最后一個(gè)月的最后一天至新年第一個(gè)月的第十五天。各地歡度春節(jié)的習(xí)俗和傳統(tǒng)有很大差異，但通常每個(gè)家庭都會(huì)在除夕夜團(tuán)聚，一起吃年夜飯。為驅(qū)厄運(yùn)、迎好運(yùn)，家家戶(hù)戶(hù)都會(huì)進(jìn)行大掃除。人們還會(huì)在門(mén)上粘貼紅色的對(duì)聯(lián)(couplets)，對(duì)聯(lián)的主題為健康、發(fā)財(cái)和好運(yùn)、其他的活動(dòng)還有放鞭炮、發(fā)紅包和探親訪友等。 1-10 ADCAB ADCBA 11-20 DBCAB DABDD 21-25 BCDBC 26.are likely to 27.astonishing 28.conventional 29. according to 30.crucial 31. examination
32.varied 33.interpersonal 34. in the case of 35.counterparts
36-45 KIDNL HOBME 46-55 FKDAM IBGEH
56-65 BCDCA DACBC
The secret to happiness is keeping busy, research has found. Keeping the mind 36 with tasks-no matter how meaningless-staves off(趕走) negative emotions, the study found.
However, the bad news is that humans seem hard-wired (天生的) to be lazy in order to save energy, according to Professor Christopher Hsee, a behavioral scientist at Chicago University.
In a study 98 students were asked to complete two surveys. After they had completed the first they were made to wait 15 minutes to receive the next one. They were given a choice of either handing in the first 37 nearby or at a more distant location they had to walk to. Whichever option they chose, they received a chocolate bar. Two- thirds (68 per cent) chose the lazy 38 . Those who had taken the walk reported feeling happier than those who bad stayed 39
Prof Hsee 40 keeping busy helped keep people happy. He said the findings, reported in the journal Psychological Science, had policy 41 "Governments may increase the happiness of idle citizens by having them build bridges that are 42 useless," he proposed. At the individual Ievel, he advised, "Get up and do something. Anything. Even if there really is no point to what you are doing, you will feel better for it. " He 43 , "Incidentally, thinking deeply or engaging in self-reflection 44 as keeping busy, too. You do not need to be running around--you just need to be 45 , either physically or mentally. "
A. study
B. added
C. thought
D. option
E. engaged
F. especially
G. increased
H. implications
I. survey
J. solutions
K. occupied
L. concluded
M. counts
N. put
O. actually
第36空答案為( )。
37、第37空答案為( )。
38、第38空答案為( )。
39、第39空答案為( )。
40、第40空答案為( )。
41、第41空答案為( )。
42、第42空答案為( )。
43、第43空答案為( )。
44、第44空答案為( )。
45、第45空答案為( )。 Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
46、
根據(jù)下列短文，回答46-56題。
Into the Unknown
The world has never seen population ageing before. Can it cope?
A. Until the early 1990s nobody much thought about whole populations getting older. The UN had the foresight to convene a "world assembly on ageing" back in 1982, but that came and went. By 1994 the World Bank had noticed that something big was happening. In a report entitled "Averting the Old Age Crisis", it argued that pension arrangements in most countries were unsustainable.
B. For the next ten years a succession of books, mainly by Americans, sounded the alarm. They had titles like Young vs Old, Gray Dawn and The Coming Generational Storm, and their message was blunt: health-care systems were heading for the rocks, pensioners were taking young people to the cleaners, and soon there would be intergenerational warfare.
C. Since then the debate has become less emotional, not least because a lot more is known about the subject.Books, conferences and research papers have multiplied. International organisations such as the OECD and the EU issue regular reports. Population ageing is on every agenda, from G8 economic conferences to NATO summits. The World Economic Forum plans to consider the future of pensions and health care at its prestigious Davos conference early next year. The media, including this newspaper, are giving the subject extensive coverage.
D. Whether all that attention has translated into sufficient action is another question. Governments in rich countries now accept that their pension and health-care promises will soon become unaffordable, and many of them have embarked on reforms, but so far only timidly. That is not surprising: politicians with an eye on the next election will hardly rush to introduce unpopular measures that may not bear fruit for years, perhaps decades.
E. The outline of the changes needed is clear. To avoid fiscal (財(cái)政的) meltdown, public pensions and health- care provision will have to be reined back severely and taxes may have to go up. By far the most effective method to restrain pension spending is to give people the opportunity to work longer, because it increases tax revenues and reduces spending on pensions at the same time. It may even keep them alive longer. John Rother, the AARP's head of policy and strategy, points to studies showing that other things being equal, people who remain at work have lower death rates than their retired peers.
F. Younger people today mostly accept that they will have to work for longer and that their pensions will be less generous. Employers still need to be persuaded that older workers are worth holding on to. That may be because they have had plenty of younger ones to choose from, partly thanks to the post-war baby-boom and partly because over the past few decades many more women have entered the labour force, increasing employers' choice. But the reservoir of women able and willing to take up paid work is running low, and the baby-boomers are going grey.
G. In many countries immigrants have been filling such gaps in the labour force as have already emerged (and remember that the real shortage is still around ten years off). Immigration in the developed world is the highest it has ever been, and it is making a useful difference. In still-fertile America it currently accounts for about 40% of total population growth, and in fast-ageing western Europe for about 90%.
H. On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution. Many developing countries have lots of young people in need of jobs; many rich countries need helping hands that will boost tax revenues and keep up economic growth. But over the next few decades labour forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice their current size in western Europe's most outhful countries, and three times in the older ones. Japan would need a large multiple of the few immigrants it has at present. Public opinion polls show that people in most rich countries already think that immigration is too high. Further big increases would be politically unfeasible.
I. To tackle the problem of ageing populations at its root, "old" countries would have to rejuvenate (使年輕)themselves by having more of their own children. A number of them have tried, some more successfully than others. But it is not a simple matter of offering financial incentives or providing more child care. Modem urban life in rich countries is not well adapted to large families. Women find it hard to combine family and career. They often compromise by having just one child.
J. And if fertility in ageing countries does not pick up? It will not be the end of the world, at least not for quite a while yet, but the world will slowly become a different place. Older societies may be less innovative and more strongly disinclined to take risks than younger ones. By 2025 at the latest, about half the voters in America and most of those in western European countries will be over 50-and older people turn out to vote in much greater number than younger ones. Academic studies have found no evidence so far that older voters have used their power at the ballot box to push for policies that specifically benefit them, though if in future there are many more of them they might start doing so.
K. Nor is there any sign of the intergenerational warfare predicted in the 1990s. After all, older people themselves mostly have families. In a recent study of parents and grown-up children in 11 European countries, Karsten Hank of Marmheim University found that 85% of them lived within 25km of each other and the majority of them were in touch at least once a week.
L. Even so, the shift in the centre of gravity to older age groups is bound to have a profound effect on societies, not just economically and politically but in all sorts of other ways too. Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of America's CSIS, in a thoughtful book called The Graying of the Great Powers, argue that, among other things, the ageing of the developed countries will have a number of serious security implications. M) For example, the shortage of young adults is likely to make countries more reluctant to commit the few they have to military service. In the decades to 2050, America will find itself playing an ever-increasing role in the developed world's defence effort. Because America's population will still be growing when that of most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed country that still matters geopolitically
(地緣政治上).
Ask me in 2020
N) There is little that can be done to stop population ageing, so the world will have to live with it. But some of the consequences can be alleviated. Many experts now believe that given the right policies, the effects, though grave,need not be catastrophic. Most countries have recognised the need to do something and are beginning to act.
O) But even then there is no guarantee that their efforts will work. What is happening now is historically unprecedented. Ronald Lee, director of the Centre on the Economics and Demography of Ageing at the University of California, Berkeley, puts it briefly and clearly: "We don't really know what population ageing will be like, because nobody has done it yet. "
Employers should realise it is important to keep older workers in the workforce.
47、 A recent study found that most old people in some European countries had regular weekly contact with their adult children.
48、 Few governments in rich countries have launched bold reforms to tackle the problem of population ageing.
49、 In a report published some 20 years ago, the sustainability of old age pension systems in most countries was called into doubt,
50、 Countries that have a shortage of young adults will be less willing to send them to war.
51、 One-child families are more common in ageing societies due to the stress of urban life and the difficulties of balancing family and career.
52、 A series of books, mostly authored by Americans, warned of conflicts between the older and younger generations.
53、 Compared with younger ones, older societies tend to be less innovative and take fewer risks.
54、 The best solution to the pension crisis is to postpone the retirement age.
55、 Immigration as a means to boost the shrinking labour force may meet with resistance in some rich countries. Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D ). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
56、根據(jù)下列短文，回答56-61題。
Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you're not an investor in one of those hedge funds that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to a 26-year low against the pound, already- expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $8.
The once all-powerful dollar isn't doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar.
The weak dollar is a source of humiliation (屈辱), for a nation's self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It's also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S. economy--from giant companies like Coca-Cola to morn-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami--for which the weak dollar is most excellent news.
Many Europeans may view the U.S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak. Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico--as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals can't afford to join the merrymaking.
The money tourists spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So do exports, which, thanks in part to the weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006 and May 2007. For the first five months of 2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent from 2006.
If you own shares in large American corporations, you're a winner in the weak-dollsr gamble. Last week Coca-Cola's stock bubbled to a five-year high after it reported a fantastic quarter. Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent of Coke's beverage (飲料) business. Other American companies profiting from this trend include McDonald's and IBM.
American tourists, however, shouldn't expect any relief soon. The dollar lost strength the way many marriages break up--slowly, and then all at once. And currencies don't turn on a dime. So if you want to avoid the pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic dollar, cancel that summer vacation to England and look to New England. There, the dollar is still treated with a little respect.
Why do Americans feel humiliated?
A.Their economy is plunging.
B.Their currency has slumped.
C.They can't afford trips to Europe.
D.They have lost half of their assets.
57、 How does the current dollar affect the life of ordinary Americans?
A.They have to cancel their vacations in New England.
B.They find it unaffordable to dine in morn-and-pop restaurants.
C.They have to spend more money when buying imported goods.
D.They might lose their jobs due to potential economic problems.
58、 How do many Europeans feel about the U.S. with the devalued dollar?.
A.They feel contemptuous of it.
B.They are sympathetic with it.
C.They regard it as a superpower on the decline.
D.They think of it as a good tourist destination.
59、 What is the author's advice to Americans?
A.They treat the dollar with a little respect.
B.They try to win in the weak-dollar gamble.
C.They vacation at home rather than abroad.
D.They treasure their marriages all the more.
60、 What does the author imply by saying "currencies don't turn on a dime" (Line 2, Pare. 7)?
A.The dollar's value will not increase in the short term.
B.The value of a dollar will not be reduced to a dime.
C.The dollar's value will drop, but within a small margin.
D.Few Americans will change dollars into other currencies.
61、 根據(jù)下列短文，回答{TSE}題。
In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We're pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resunes so they can get into the college of our first choice. Fee twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids' college background as a prize demonstrating how well we've raised them. But we can't acknowledge that our obsession (癡迷) is more about us than them. So we've contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn't matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won't be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria (歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible-and mostly wrong. We haven't found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don't systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures---professors' feedback and the number of essay exams---selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, "selective schools do enhance their graduates' lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school's average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke (偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it's not the only indicator and, paradoxically, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college isn't life's only competition. In the next competition---the job market and graduate school--the results may change. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of prestigious universities didn't.
So, parents, lighten up. The stakes have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A.They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B.They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C.They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D.They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
62、 Why do parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever?
A.They want to increase their children's chances of entering a prestigious college.
B.They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C.Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D.Elite universities now enroll fewer students than they used to.
63、 what does the author mean by "Kids count more than their colleges. " (Line 1, Para. 4)?
A.Continuing education is more important to a person's success.
B.A person's happiness should be valued more than their education.
C.Kids' actual abilities are more important than their college backgrounds.
D.what kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
64、 what does Krueger's study tell us?
A.Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B.Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C.Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D.Connections built in prestigious universities may be sustained long after graduation.
65、 One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that _______.
A.they earn less than their peers from other institutions
B.they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C.they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation
D.they overemphasize their qualifications in job applications Part VI Translation (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
66、中國(guó)新年是中國(guó)最重要的傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日，在中國(guó)也被稱(chēng)為春節(jié)。新年的慶?；顒?dòng)從除夕開(kāi)始一直延續(xù)到元宵節(jié)(the Lantern Festival)，即從農(nóng)歷(lunlar calendar)最后一個(gè)月的最后一天至新年第一個(gè)月的第十五天。各地歡度春節(jié)的習(xí)俗和傳統(tǒng)有很大差異，但通常每個(gè)家庭都會(huì)在除夕夜團(tuán)聚，一起吃年夜飯。為驅(qū)厄運(yùn)、迎好運(yùn)，家家戶(hù)戶(hù)都會(huì)進(jìn)行大掃除。人們還會(huì)在門(mén)上粘貼紅色的對(duì)聯(lián)(couplets)，對(duì)聯(lián)的主題為健康、發(fā)財(cái)和好運(yùn)、其他的活動(dòng)還有放鞭炮、發(fā)紅包和探親訪友等。 1-10 ADCAB ADCBA 11-20 DBCAB DABDD 21-25 BCDBC 26.are likely to 27.astonishing 28.conventional 29. according to 30.crucial 31. examination
32.varied 33.interpersonal 34. in the case of 35.counterparts
36-45 KIDNL HOBME 46-55 FKDAM IBGEH
56-65 BCDCA DACBC