Part I Writing.寫作
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled The Civil Servant Test Craze. Your essay should start with a brief description of the picture. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.
1、1.現(xiàn)在有不少人認(rèn)為解決環(huán)境問題的方法是提高油價
2.對這種做法有人表示支持，也有人并不贊成
3.我認(rèn)為……
Should Environmental Problems Be Solved by Raising the Price of Fuel?
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詞匯理解
Section A
2、根據(jù)以下資料，回答2-11題。
Today nanotechnology (納米技術(shù)) is still in a formative phase. Yet it is maturing rapidly. Between 1997 and 2005, investment in nanotech research and development by governments around the world ____36____from $ 432 million to about $ 4. 1 billion, and corresponding industry investment exceeded that of governments by 2005. By 2015, products incorporating nanotech will contribute approximately $1 trillion to the global economy.
Descriptions of nanotech typically characterize it purely in terms of the minute size-assemblies between the size of an atom and about 100 molecular diameters (分子直徑). That____37____makes it sound as though nanotech is merely looking to use infinitely smaller parts than conventional engineering. But rearranging the atoms and molecules leads to new____ 38____ One sees a transition between the fixed behavior of individual atoms and molecules and the adjustable behavior of collectives. Thus, nanotechnology might better be viewed as the ____39____ of quantum theory (量子論) and other nano specific phenomena to fundamentally control the properties and behavior of matter.
The second stage, which began in 2005, focuses on active nanostructures that change their size, shape, conductivity or other properties during use. New drug delivery particles could release therapeutic(治療的) molecules in the body only after they reached their____40____diseased tissues. Electronic components such as transistors and amplifiers with adaptive functions could be reduced to single, complex molecules.
Starting around 2010, workers will ____ 41____expertise with systems of nanostructures, directing large numbers of intricate components to specified ends. One application could involve the guided self assembly of nanoelectronic components into three dimensional circuits and whole devices. Medicine could employ such systems to improve the tissue compatibility of implants, or perhaps even to build ____ 42____organs.
After 2015 - 2020, the field will include molecular nanosystems. Whereas biological systems are water based and markedly temperature sensitive, these molecular nanosystems will be able to operate in a far wider range of environments and should be much faster. Computers and robots could be reduced to____43____small sizes. New interfaces linking people directly to electronics could change telecommunications. Over time, therefore, nanoteclmology should benefit every industrial sector and health care field. Nanotech does, however, pose new challenges to risk governance as well. Internationally, more needs to be done to collect the scientific information needed to resolve the ____44____and to install the proper regulatory oversight. Helping the public to ____45____nanotech soberly in a big picture that retains human values and quality of life will also be essential for this powerful new discipline to live up to its astonishing potential.
A.ambiguities
B.application
C.artificial
D.compulsory
E.cultivate
F.depiction
G.extraordinarily
H.illuminate
I.indignation
J.ingenious
K.instantaneously
L.perceive
M.properties
N.soared
O.targeted
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10、第44題答案為( )
11、第45題答案為( )
47、根據(jù)以下資料，回答47-56題。
Does the Internet Make You Dumber?
[A] The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhere is to be nowhere." Today, the Internet grants us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into disrupted and superficial thinkers.
[B] The picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at least to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity (速度), of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate (鎮(zhèn)定的) and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by e-mails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle (盡力同時應(yīng)付)many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.
[C] The common thread in these disabilities is dispersing our attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it "meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory," writes the Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist (神經(jīng)科學(xué)家) Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts.
[D] When we're constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to generalize the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our contemplating. We become mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory.
[E] In an article published in Science last year, Patricia Greenfield, a leading developmental psychologist, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities. Some of the studies indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, can enhance" visual literacy skills", increasing the speed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and "more automatic" thinking.
[F] In one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example, half a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lecture's content. While it's hardly surprising that Web surfing would distract students, it should be a note of caution to schools that are wiring their classrooms in hopes of improving learning.
[G] Ms. Greenfield concluded that "every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others. " Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by "new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes," including "abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination." We're becoming, in a word, shallower.
[H] In another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford University's Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, a team of researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lot of media multitasking and 52 people who multitask much less frequently. The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivial.
[I] The researchers were surprised by the results. They had expected that the intensive multitaskers would have gained some unique mental advantages from all their on-screen juggling. But that wasn't the case. In fact, the heavy multitaskers weren't even good at multitasking. They were considerably less adept at switching between tasks than the more infrequent multitaskers. "Everything distracts them," observed Clifford Nass, the professor who heads the Stanford lab.
[J] It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cellphones. But they don't. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we're not using the technology.
[K] The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being "massively remodeled" by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of California in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. When, for example, Mr. Merzenich rearranged the nerves in a monkey's hand, the nerve cells in the animal's sensory cortex quickly reorganized themselves to create a new" mental map" of the hand. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be "deadly".
[L] What we seem to be sacrificing in all our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. It is revealing, and distressing, to compare the cognitive effects of the Internet with those of an earlier information technology, the printed book. Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness.
[M] Reading a long sequence of pages helps us develop a rare kind of mental discipline. The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted. Our predisposition is to be aware of as much of what's going on around us as possible. Our fast-paced, reflexive shifts in focus were once crucial to our survival. They reduced the odds that a predator would take us by surprise or that we'd overlook a nearby source of food.
[N] To read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought. It requires us to place ourselves at what T. S. Eliot, in his poem "Four Quartets", called "the still point of the turning world". We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, there by gaining greater control over our attention and our mind.
[O] It is this control, this mental discipline, which we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with. -Nicholas Carr is the author, most recently, of "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains".
Rapid shifts in focus on screens during computer tasks can cause more automatic but less intensive thoughts.
48、People get less understanding from the texts filled with Internet links than normal reading.
49、 According to Ms. Greenfield, growing use of screen-based media has improved our visual-spatial intelligence.
50、The richness of our memories relies on our ability to focus on something.
51、 Unprecedented amounts of information can make our thoughts scattered.
52、 When we turn off our computers and cellphones, the ill effects will not disappear.
53、When we are online, our brains cannot form distinctive and profound thinking.
54、 Whereas the Internet distracts our attention, the book concentrates on it.
55、 The experiment conducted at Cornell University indicates web surfing to school would distract students' thoughts.
56、 According to the experiment at Stanford University, the multitaskers' attention was easily scattered.
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.
57、根據(jù)下面資料，回答57-66題
There is a certain inevitability that ebook sales have now overtaken paperback sales on Amazon's US site. Amazon's Kindle 2 is so light and so cheap that it's easy to see why people have rushed to buy it. Though I'm still not keen on the design of the Kindle, it is a vast improvement on its predecessor and certainly tolerable. Beyond the device itself, Amazon has done a great job of rolling out Kindle apps, ensuring that people like me-who have an iPad but not a Kindle-can still join in the fun. Once you're into the Kindle ecosystem, Amazon locks you in tightly-just as Apple does with its iTunes/ iPod ecosystem. It's so easy to buy from Amazon's store and the books are so cheap that it's not worth the effort of going elsewhere.
While I remain opposed to Amazon's DRM (數(shù)字版權(quán)管理)-indeed, I'm opposed to DRM on any ebooks-I have to admit that the implementation is so smooth that most Kindle users won't care at all that their ebooks can't be moved to other devices.
The ebook trend is nowhere near peaking. Over the next five years we can expect to see more and more readers move away from printed books and pick up ebooks instead. But I don't think that will mean the death of the printed book.
There are some who prefer printed books. They like having shelves filled with books they've read and books they plan to read; they like the feel of the book in their hands and the different weights and typefaces and layouts of different titles. In other words, they like the physical form of the book almost as much as the words it contains.
I can sympathise with those people. As I wrote earlier this week, my ideal situation would be for publishers to bundle ebooks with printed ones-in much the same way that film studios btmdie DVDs with digital copies of films. There's no reason to think that lovers of printed books will change their minds. There will undoubtedly be fewer of them as time goes by because more people will grow up with ebooks and spend little time with printed ones. However, just as there are people who love vinyl records(黑膠唱片), even if they were born well into the CD era, there will still be a dedicated minority who love physical books.
Since there are fewer of these people, that will mean fewer bookshops and higher prices for printed books but I don't think the picture is entirely bleak. There is scope for smaller print runs of lavishly designed printed books and bookshops aimed at book lovers, rather than the Stieg Larsson-reading masses. With mainstream readers out of the printed book market, book lovers might even find they get a better experience.
What can be inferred from Paragraph One?
A.Most people buy Kindle 2 mainly because of its low price.
B.The author of the passage is a loyal customer of Apple products.
C.Amazon's Kindle 2 surpassed Kindle 1 in designing.
D.The sales of ebook outnumbered those of paperback in the U. S.
58、 According to the passage, the reason why the author opposes to Amazon's DRM is that __
A.ebooks can only be purchased on Amazon. com
B.Kindle books are not compatible with other electronic reading devices
C.once implemented, ebooks can't be transferred to other equipments
D.ebooks installed on Kindle 2 can't be edited freely
59、 It can be learned that the trend of ebooks______
A.will come to stop any time soon
B.will reach the summit in the near future
C.will meet its heyday when printed books die
D.has already reached its peak
60、 Why does the author believe that the surging sales of ebooks won't mean the death of the printed book?
A.Because a minority will stick to their love of printed books.
B.Because the majority of book lovers won't change their minds.
C.Because people always hold nostalgic feelings towards printed books.
D.Because people will return to the printed books as time goes by.
61、 According to the author, which of the following is TRUE about the future of printed books?
A.They will be bundled with ebooks.
B.They will no longer be available in the market.
C.They will be sold in small quantity and high quality.
D.They will be redesigned to cater to the masses.
62、根據(jù)下面資料，回答62-71題
It would be all too easy to say that Facebook's market meltdown is coming to an end. After all, Mark Zuckerberg's social network burned as much as $ 50 billion of shareholders' wealth in just a couple months. To put that in context, since its debut(初次登臺) on NASDAQ in May, Facebook has lost value nearly equal to Yahoo, AOL, Zynga, Yelp, Pandora, OpenTable, Groupon, LinkedIn, and Angie's List combined, plus that of the bulk of the publicly traded newspaper industry:
As shocking as this utter failure may be to the nearly 1 billion faithful Facebook users around the world, it's no surprise to anyone who read the initial public offering (IPO) prospectus (首次公開募股說明書). Worse still, all the crises that emerged when the company debuted-overpriced shares, poor corporate governance, huge challenges to the core business, and a damaged brand-remain today. Facebook looks like a prime example of what Wall Street calls a falling knife-that is, one that can cost investors their fingers if they try to catch it.
Start with the valuation(估值). To justify a stock price close to the lower end of the projected range in the IPO, say $ 28 a share, Facebook's future growth would have needed to match that of Google seven years earlier. That would have required increasing revenue by some 80 percent annually and maintaining high profit margins all the while.
That's not happening. In the first half of 2012, Facebook reported revenue of $ 2.24 billion, up 38 percent from the same period in 2011. At the same time, the company's costs surged to $ 2.6 billion in the six-month period.
This so-so performance reflects the Achilles' heel of Facebook's business model, which the company clearly stated in a list of risk factors associated with its IPO: it hasn't yet figured out how to advertise effectively on mobile devices, The number of Facebook users accessing the site on their phones surged by67 percent to 543 million in the last quarter, or more than half its customer base.
Numbers are only part of the problem. The mounting pile of failure creates a negative feedback loop that threatens Facebook's future in other ways. Indeed, the more Facebook's disappointment in the market is catalogued, the worse Facebook's image becomes. Not only does that threaten to rub off on users, it's bad for recruitment and retention of talented hackers, who are the lifeblood of Zuckerberg's creation.
Yet the brilliant CEO can ignore the sadness and complaints of his shareholders thanks to the super- voting stock he holds. This arrangement also was fully disclosed at the time of the offering. It's a pity so few investors apparently bothered to do their homework.
What can be inferred about Facebook from the first paragraph?
A.Its market meltdown has been easily halted.
B.It has increased trade with the newspaper industry.
C.It has encountered utter failure since its stock debut.
D.Its shareholders have invested $ 50 billion in a social network.
63、 The crises Facebook is facing_____
A.have been disclosed in the IPO prospectus
B.are the universal risks Wall Street confronts
C.disappoint its faithful users
D.have existed for a long time
64、 To make its stock price reasonable, Facebook has to____
A.narrow the IPO price range
B.cooperate with Google
C.keep enormously profitable
D.invest additional $ 2.6 billion
65、 It can be inferred from the context that the "Achilles' heel" (Line 1, Para. 5) refers to____
A.deadly weakness
B.problem unsolved
C.indisputable fact
D.potential risk
66、 What effect will Facebook's failure in the market have?
A.Its users' benefits will be threatened.
B.Talented hackers will take down the website.
C.The CEO will hold the super-voting stock.
D.The company's innovation strength will be damaged.
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.
67、 十九世紀(jì)初，清王朝迅速衰敗。英國在這一時期向中國大量輸入鴉片(opium)，清政府力圖查禁鴉片。英國為保護(hù)鴉片貿(mào)易，于1840年對中國發(fā)動侵略戰(zhàn)爭，清政府最后同英國政府簽訂了喪權(quán)辱國的《南京條約》(Treaty of Nanking)。鴉片戰(zhàn)爭之后，英、美、法、俄、日等同家不斷強(qiáng)迫清政府簽訂各種不平等條約，中國逐漸淪為半殖民地半封建社會。1911年孫中山(Dr.Sun Yat-sen)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的辛亥革命，*了清王朝的統(tǒng)治，同時也結(jié)束了2000多年的封建君主制(feudal monarchy)，建立了中華民國。