Section I Use of English

Directions:

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)

Thinner isn't always better.A number of studies have$\underline{\quad1\quad}$that normal-weight people are in fact at higher risk of some diseases compared to those who are overweight. And there are health conditions for which being overweight is actually$\underline{\quad2\quad}$.For example,heavier women are less likely to develop calcium deficiency than thin women.$\underline{\quad3\quad}$among the elderly, being somewhat overweight is often an$\underline{\quad4\quad}$of good health.

Of even greater$\underline{\quad5\quad}$is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to define.It is often defined$\underline{\quad6\quad}$body mass index, or BMI. BMI$\underline{\quad7\quad}$body mass divided by the square of height. An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered to be normal weight. Between 25 and 30 is overweight. And over 30 is considered obese. Obesity,$\underline{\quad8\quad}$, can be divided into moderately obese,severely obese,and very severely obese.

While such numerical standards seem$\underline{\quad9\quad}$,they are not. Obesity is probably less a matter of weight than body fat. Some people with a high BMI are in fact extremely fit,$\underline{\quad10\quad}$others with a low BMI may be in poor$\underline{\quad11\quad}$.For example, many collegiate and professional football players$\underline{\quad12\quad}$as obese, though their percentage body fat is low. Conversely, someone with a small frame may have high body fat but a$\underline{\quad13\quad}$BMI.

Today we have a(an)$\underline{\quad14\quad}$to label obesity as a disgrace.The overweight are sometimes$\underline{\quad15\quad}$in the media with their faces covered. Stereotypes$\underline{\quad16\quad}$with obesity include laziness, lack of will power, and lower prospects for success. Teachers, employers, and health professionals have been shown to harbor biases against the obese.$\underline{\quad17\quad}$very young children tend to look down on the overweight,and teasing about body build has long been a problem in schools.

1. [A] denied [B] conduced [C] doubled [D] ensured

2. [A] protective [B] dangerous [C] sufficient [D] troublesome

3. [A] Instead [B]However[C] Likewise [D] Therefore

4. [A] indicator [B] objective [C] origin [D] example

5. [A] impact [B] relevance [C] assistance [D] concern

6. [A] in terms of [B] in case of [C] in favor of [D]in of

7. [A] measures [B] determines [C] equals[D] modifies

8. [A] in essence [B] in contrast [C] in turn [D] in part

9. [A] complicated [B] conservative [C] variable [D] straightforward

10. [A] so [B] unlike [C] since [D] unless

11. [A] shape [B] spirit [C] balance [D]taste

12. [A] start [B] quality [C] retire [D] stay

13. [A] strange [B] changeable [C] normal [D] constant

14. [A] option[B] reason [C] opportunity [D] tendency

15. [A] employed [B] pictured [C] imitated [D] monitored

16. [A][B] combined[C] settled [D] associated

17. [A] Even[B] Still[C] Yet [D] Only

18. [A] despised [B]corrected [C] ignored [D]grounded

19. [A] discussions [B] businesses [C] policies [D] studies

20. [A] for [B] against [C] with [D] without

Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B,C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET.(40 points)

Text1

What would you do with 590m? This is now a question for Gloria Mackenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. If she hopes her new-found for tune will yield lasting feelings of fulfillment, she could do worse than read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dumn and Michael Norton.

These two academics use an array of behavioral research to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and extravagant homes. Yet satisfaction with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly what was once exciting and new becomes old-hat; regret creeps in. It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms Dumn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more aluable with timeas stories or memories-particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others.

This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most "happiness bang for your buck."It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it), Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most en joyable when they are consumed sparingly. This is apparently the reason MacDonald's restricts the availability of its popular MRib - a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an ob ject of obsession.

Readers of "Happyloney" are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfillment, not hunger. Money may not quite buy happiness,but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyone will agree with the authors' policy ideas, which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most people will come away from this book believing it was money wellspent。

21. According to Dumn and Norton, which of the following is the most rewarding purchase?

[A]A big house

[B]A special tour

[C]A stylish car

[D]A rich meal

22. The author's attitude toward Americans' watching TV is

[A]critical

[B] supportive

[C]sympathetic

[D] ambiguous

23. Macrib is mentioned in paragraph 3 to show that

[A] consumers are sometimes irrational

[B]popularity usually comes after quality

[C]marketing tricks are after effective

[D]rarity generally increases pleasure

24. According to the last paragraph, Happy Money

[A]has left much room for readers' criticism

[B]may prove to be a worthwhile purchase

[C]has predicted a wider income gap in the us

[D]may give its readers a sense of achievement

25.This text mainly discusses how to

[A]balance feeling good and spending money

[B]spend large sums of money won in lotteries

[C]obtain lasting satisfaction from money spent

[D]become more reasonable in spending on luxuries

Text2

An article in Scientific America has pointed out that empirical research says that, actualy, you think you' re more beautiful than you are. We have a deep seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing strategies to research into what the call the "above average effect",or "illusory superiority", and shown that, for example,70% of us rate ourselves as above average in leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others-all obviously statistical impossibilities.

We rose tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations.We become defensive when criticized, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem,we stalk around thinking we' re hot stuff.

Psychologist and behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key studying into self-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather that have people simply rate their beauty compress with others, he asked them to identify an original photogragh of themselves from a lineup inc luding versions that had been altered to appear more and less attractive.Visual recognition, reads the study, is "an automatic psychological process occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation".If the sub jects quickly chose a falsely flattering image- which must did- they genuinely believed it was really how they looked. Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there any evidence that, those who self-enhance the must (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored picture were real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities. In fact those who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other makers for having higher self-esteem."I don't think the findings that we having have are any evidence of personal delusion", says Epley. "It's a reflection simply of people generally thinking wel of themselves'.If you are depressed, you won' t be self-enhancing. Knowing the results of Epley's study, it makes sense that why people heat photographs of themselves Viscerally-on one level, they don't even recognise the person in the picture as themselves,Facebook therefore ,is a self-enhancer's paradise, where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit, style,beauty, intellect and lifestyle it's not that people's profiles are dishonest, says catalina toma of Wiscon-Madison university,"but they portray an idealized version of themselves

26. According to the first paragraph, social psychologist have found that

[A] our self-ratings are unrealistically high

[B] i1lusory superiority is baseless effect

[C] our need for leadership is unnatural

[D] self-enhancing strategies are ineffective

27. Visual recognition is believed to be people's

[A] rapid watching

[B] conscious choice

[C] intuitive response

[D] automatic self-defence

28. Epley found that people with higher self-esteem tended to

[A] underestimate their insecurities

[B] believe in their attractiveness

[C] cover up their depressions

[D] oversimplify their illusions

29.The word"Viscerally"(Line 2,para.5) is closest in meaning to

[A] instinctively

[B]occasionally

[C] particularly

[D]aggressively

30.It can be inferred that Facebook is selfenhancer's paradise because people can

[A]present their dishonest profiles

[B]define their traditional life sty les

[C] share their intellectual pursuits

[D]withhold their unflattering sides

Text3

Upuntil a few decades ago, our visions of the future were largel y-though byno means uniformly-glowingly positive.Science and te chnology would cure all the ills of humanity,leading to lives of ful fillment and opportunity for all.

Now utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained adeeper app reciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to epidemic fluand to climate change. You might even be tempted to assu me that humanity has little future to look forward to.

Butsuch gloominess is misplaced.The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years-so why shouldn't we? T ake a broaderlook atourspecies'place in the universe,and it bec omes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Look up Homosapiens in the"R ed List" ofthreatenedspecies of the Internationalunion for the Conversation ofNature (IUCN),and you will read:"Listed as LeastCon cernas the species is very widely distributed, adaptable,currently in creasing,and there are no major threats resulting in an overall popul ation decline.

Sowhatdoes our deep future hold?A growing number of researchers and organizations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example,the Long Now Foundation has its flagship project a medical clock that is designed to still be marking time thousands of years he nce.

Perhaps willfully, itmay be easier to think about such lengthy ti mescales than aboutthe more immediate future. The potential evolution oftoday's technology,andits social consequences, is dazzlingly compli cated, andit's perhaps best left to science fiction writers and futur ologists to explore the many possibilities we

can envisage.That's one reason why we have launched Arc,a new p ublication dedicated to the near future.

But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance.As so often, the past holds the keyto the future:we have now identified enough of the long-term pat ternsshaping the history ofthe planet, and our species, to make evi dence-basedforecasts about the situations in which our descendants wil1 find themselves.

Thislong perspectivemakesthe pessimistic view of our prospectss eem more likely to be a passing fad.To be sure, the future is not all rosy.Butwe are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come.

31.Our vision of the future used to be inspired by

[A] ourdesire for lives of fulfillment

[B] ourfaith in science and technology

[C] our awareness of potential risks

[D] our belief in equal opportunity

32.The IUCN's"Red List" suggest that human being are

[A] a sustained species

[B] a threaten to the environment

[C] the world's dominant power

[D]a misplaced race

33.Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 5?

[A] Are helps limit the scope of futurological studies.

[B]Technology offers solutions to social problem.

[C]The interest in science fiction is on the rise.

[D]Our Immediate future is hard to conceive.

34.To ensure the future of mankind, it is crucial to

[A] explore our planet's abundant resources

[B] adoptan optimistic view of the world

[C]drawon our experience from the past

[D]curbour ambition to reshape history

35.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

[A] Uncertainty about Our Future

[B] Evolution of the Human Species

[C]The Ever-bright Prospects of Mankind

[D] Science, Technology and Humanity

Text4

When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways,broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.

Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame.We have not been good at communicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth.Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure project,so it is inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.

Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.

The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this. It needs to put historical pre judices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.

There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne,Chancellor of the Exchequer, may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60, 000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%.

Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.

But it is not just down to the government.While these measures would be welcome in the short term,we must face up to the fact that the existing t4.5bn programe of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015, is unlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition's spending plans if returns to power. The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to era of large-scale public grants. We need to ad just to this changing climate.

36. The author believes that the housing sector

[A] has attracted much attention

[B] involves certain political factors

[C] shoulders too much responsibility

[D] has lost its real value in economy

37.It can be learned that affordable housing has

[A] increased its home supply

[B] offered spending opportunities

[C] suffered government biases

[D] disappointed the government

38.According to Paragraph 5, George Osborne may

[A] allow greater government debt for housing

[B] stop local authorities from building homes

[C] prepare to reduce housing stock debt

[D] release a lifted GDP growth forecast

39. It can be inferred that a stable rental environment would

[A] lower the costs of registered providers

[B]lessen the impact of government interference

[C]contribute to funding new developments

[D]relieve the ministers of responsibilities

40.The author believes that after 2015, the government may.

[A] implement more policies to support housing

[B]review the need for large-scale public grants

[C]renew the affordable housing grants programme

[D] stop generous funding to the housing sector

Part B

Directions:

Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEERT. (10 points)

Emerging in the late Sixties and reaching a peak in the Seventies, Land Art was one of a range of new forms, including Body Art, Performance Art, Action Art and Installation Art, which pushed art beyond the traditional confines of the studio and gallery. Rather than portraying landscape, land artists used the physical substance of the land itself as their medium.

The British land art, typified by Richard Long's piece, was not only more domestically scaled, but a lot quirkier than its American counterpart. Indeed, while you might assume that an exhibition of Land Art would consist only of records of works rather than the works themselves, Long's photograph of his work is the work. Since his “action” is in the past, the photograph is its sole embodiment.

That might seem rather an obscure point, but it sets the tone for an exhibition that contains a lot of black-and-white photographs and relatively few natural objects.

Long is Britain's best-known Land Artist and his Stone Circle, a perfect ring of purplish rocks from Portishead beach laid out on the gallery floor, represents the elegant, rarefied side of the form. The Boyle Family, on the other hand, stand for its dirty, urban aspect. Comprising artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills and their children, they studied random sections of the British landscape, on gallery walls. Their Olaf Street Study, a square of brick-strewn waste ground is one of the few works here to embrace the commonplaceness that characterises most of our experience of the landscape most of the time.

Parks feature, particularly in the earlier works, such as John Hilliard's very funny Across the Park, in which a long-haired stroller is variously smiled at by a pretty girl and unwittingly assaulted in a sequence of images that turn out to be different parts of the same photograph.

Generally however British land artists preferred to get away from towns, gravitating towards landscapes that are traditionally considered beautiful such as the Lake District or the Wiltshire Downs. While it probably wasn't apparent at the time, much of this work is permeated by a spirit of romantic escapism that the likes of Wordsworth would have readily understood. Derek Jarman's yellow-tinted film Towards Avebury, a collection of long, mostly still shots of the Wiltshire landscape, evokes a tradition of English landscape painting stretching from Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash.

In the case of Hamish Fulton, you can't help feeling that the Scottish artist has simply found a way of making his love of walking-pay. A typical work, such as Seven Days, consists of a single beautiful black-and-white photograph taken on an epic walk, with the mileage and number of days taken listed beneath. British Land Art as shown in this well selected, but relatively modestly scaled exhibition wasn't about imposing on the landscape, more a kind of landscape-orientated light conceptual art created passing through. It had its origins in the great outdoors, but the results were as gallery-bound as the paintings of Turner and Constable.

Section III Translation

46. Directions:

Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on the ANSWER SHEET.(15 points)

Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality,” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben-Shahar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

Ben-Shahar uses three optimism exercises. When he feels down – say, after giving a bad lecture – he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction. He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.

Section IV Writing

Part A

47. Directions:

Suppose you are going to study abroad and share an apartment with John, a local student. Write him an email to

1) tell him about your living habits, and
2) ask for advice about living there.

You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use “Li Ming” instead.
Do not write your address. (10 points)

Part B

48. Directions:

Write an essay based on the following chart. In your writing, you should

1) interpret the chart, and
2) give your comments.

You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)

（图表信息：标题为 “20 年间中国城镇人口与乡村人口变化图”；图例中，斜线柱代表城镇人口，空心柱代表乡村人口；数据（单位：百万）：1990 年：城镇人口 300，乡村人口 834；2000 年：城镇人口 458，乡村人口 807；2010 年：城镇人口 666，乡村人口 674。）