写作 by 思思

 Excessive Packaging      

In this highly commercialized society, the merchants have been making all the efforts to add to the attrACTion of their products. The phenomenon is extremely prevalent that the packages themselves cost much more than the goods in them. Therefore, consumers in growing numbers express serious concerns for this problem.

There are several fACTors that can account for this phenomenon. To begin with, numerous people buy the goods in attrACTive packages as gifts for their friends, parents, and leaders. In this case, extravagant packages can assist them to demonstrate their care, respect, and loyalty. Moreover, the market has been SATurated with homogeneous products. In order to differentiate their products from those of others’ quickly and directly, the manufACTurers are more than willing to invest in the packaging. Additionally, the sellers may employ the vivid and exquisite packages as the tACTic to appeal to their consumers, who focus no attention on the prices but the psychological SATisfACTion from the admirable looks from their friends, even the passers-by, when they walk on the street with an eye-catching and flamboyant package in their hands. （从买家、制造商和卖家三方面各提供一个理由）

From my perspective, the excessive packaging is extremely wasteful. After all, we spend our money on the products in the packages rather than the beautiful but useless paper and boxes that will be discarded as soon as we unwrap them. I hope that the manufACTurer will divert more attention to the quality of their products so that consumers can purchase them in more reasonable prices.

翻译 by 曹林权

87. Those flowers looked as if they (好长时间没有浇水了)

答案: had not been watered for quite a long time.

考点：look as if 虚拟语气后接过去完成时。

88. Fred bought a car last week. It is (比我的车便宜一千英镑)

答案: 1000 pounds cheaper than that of mine.

考点：比较级，不要漏掉指代词that。

89. This TV program is quite boring. We might (不妨听听音乐)

答案：listen to the music as well.

考点：固定搭配may as well：不妨。

90. He left his office in a hurry, with (灯亮着，门开着)

答案：the lights on and the door open.

考点：with后的伴随结构。

91. The famous novel is said to (已被译成多种语言)

答案：have been translated into several languages.

考点：注意时态用完成时，固定搭配translate into。

选词填空 by 唐思宇

来自2010年10月《Time》

http://www.timeincnewsgroupcustompub.com/sections/100920_FeedingAmerica.pdf

One in six. Believe it or not, that’s the number of Americans who struggle with hunger. To make tomorrow a little better, Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, has designated September as Hunger ACTion Month. As part of its 30 Days in 30 Days program, it’s asking communities across the country to help the more than 200 food banks and 61,000 agencies in its network provide low-income individuals and families with the fuel they need to survive.

It’s the kind of work that’s done every day at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio. People who gather at its front door on the first and third Thursdays of each month aren’t looking for God—they’re there for something to eat. St. Andrew’s runs a food pantry that serves the city and several of the surrounding towns. Janet Drane is its manager.

In the wake of the recession, the number of families in need of food assistance began to grow. It is reported that 49 million Americans are unsure of where they will find their next meal. What’s most surprising is that 36% of them live in householdswhere at least one adult is working. “It used to be that one job was all you needed,” says St. Andrew’s Drane. “The people we see now have three and four part-time jobs and they’re still right on the edge financially.”

完型填空 by 唐思宇

来自Catherine A. Sanderson所著《Social Psychology》一书的第445页"Strategies for effective conflict resolution"一节

from Google Books

Because conflict and disaGREements are part of all close relationships,couples need to learn strategies for managing conflict in a healthy and constructive way. Some couples just avoid and deny the presence of any conflict in a relationship. However, denying the existence of conflict results in couples failing to solve their problems at early stages, which can then lead to even GREater problems later on. Not surprisingly, expressing anger and disaGREement initially leads to lower marital SATisfACTion at the beginning. However,these patterns of behavior predicts increases in marital SATisfACTion over time. Reserch suggests that working through conflicts in an important predictor of marital SATisfACTion.

So, what can you do to manage conflict in your own relationships? First,try to understand the other person's point of view andput yourself in his or her place. People who are sensitive to what their partner thinks and feels experience GREater relationship SATisfACTion. For example, researchers found that among people in dating relationships as well as marriages, those who can adopt their partner's perspective show more positive emotions, more relationship-enhancing attributes, and more constructive response to conflict.

Second, because conflict and disaGREements are an inevitable part of close relationships, people need to be able to apologize to their partners for wrongdoings and receive forgiveness from their partner for their own ACTs. Apologies minimize conflict,lead to forgiveness, and serve to restore relationship closeness. In line with this view,spouses who are more forgiving show higher marital quality over time. Interestingly,apologizing can even have positive health benefits. For example,when people reflect on hurtful memories and grudges, they show negative physiological effects, including increased heart rate and blood pressure, compared to when they reflect on sympathetic perspective-talking and forgiving.

仔细阅读 by 夏伟

第一篇

来自2009年5月28日The New York Times: Married With Bankruptcy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/opinion/29cherlin.html?_r=1

(57) In times of economic crisis, Americans turn to their families for support. If the GREat Depression is any guide, we may see a drop in our sky-high divorce rate. But this won’t necessarily represent an increase in happy marriages. In the long run, the Depression weakened American families, and the current crisis will probably do the same.

We tend to think of the Depression as a time when families pulled together to survive huge job losses. By 1932, when nearly one-quarter of the work force was unemployed, it had declined by around 25 percent from 1929. But this does not mean that people were suddenly happier with their marriages. (58) Rather, with incomes plummeting and insecure jobs, unhappy couples often couldn’t afford to divorce. They feared that neither spouse would be able to manage alone.

Today, given the job losses of the past year, fewer unhappy couples will risk starting separate households. (59) Furthermore, the housing market meltdown will make it more difficult for them to finance their separations by selling their homes.

After financial disasters family members also tend to do whatever they can to help each other and their communities. A 1940 book, “The Unemployed Man and His Family,” described a family in which the husband initially reACTed to losing his job “with tireless search for work.” He was always ACTive, looking for odd jobs to do.

The problem is that such an impulse is hard to sustain. Across the country, many similar families were unable to maintain the initial boost in morale. For some, the hardships of life without steady work eventually overwhelmed their attempts to keep their families together.  The rate rose again during the rest of the decade as the recovery took hold.

Millions of American families may now be in the initial stage of their responses to the current crisis, working together and supporting one another through the early months of unemployment.

(60、61) Today’s economic slump could well generate a similar backlog of couples whose relationships have been irreparably ruined. So it is only when the economy is healthy again that we will begin to see just how many frACTured families have been created.

57. In the initial stage, the current economic crisis is likely to ____.

A. tear many troubled families apart

B. contribute to enduring family ties

C. bring about a drop in the divorce rate

D. cause a lot of conflicts in the family

答案：C

解析： 文章第一段就提到经济危机会降低离婚率。但是长远来讲，确会带来离婚率的提高。

58. In the GREat Depression many unhappy couples chose to stick together because ____.

A. starting a new family would be hard

B. they expected things would turn better

C. they wanted to beter protect their ids

D. living separately would be too costly

答案：D

解析：定位至二段尾，costly改写原文couldn’t afford.

59. In addition to job losses, what stands in the way of unhappy couples getting a divorce?

A. Mounting family debts.

B. A sense if insecurity.

C. Difficulty in getting a loan.

D. Falling housing prices.

答案：D

解析：定位至三段尾，falling改写原文meltdown。

60. What will the current economic crisis eventually do to some married couples?

A. It will force them to pull their efforts together.

B. It will undermine their mutual understanding.

C. It will help strengthen their emotional bonds.

D. It will irreparably damage their relationship.

答案：D

解析：定位至末段首句，damage改写原文ruin。

61. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A. The economic recovery will see a higher divorce rate.

B. Few couples can stand the test of economic hardships.

C. A stable family is the best protection against poverty.

D. Money is the foundation of many a happy marriage.

答案：A

解析：最后一段不过是又一次点题，危机过后离婚率上升。

第二篇

来自2010年5月14日Newsweek: The High Price of Facebook

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/05/15/the-high-price-of-facebook.html

People are being lured onto Facebook with the promise of a fun, free service, and don’t realize that they’re paying for it by giving up loads of personal information. (62) Facebook then attempts to make money by selling their data to advertisers that want to send targeted messages.

(63) Most Facebook users don’t realize this is happening. Even if they know what the company is up to, they still have no idea what they’re paying for Facebook, because people don’t really know what their personal data is worth.

The biggest problem, however, is that the company keeps changing the rules. Early on, you could keep everything private. That was the GREat thing about Facebook—you could create your own little private network. Last year, the company changed its privacy rules so that many things—your city, your photo, the your friends’ names—were set, by default, to be shared with everyone on the Internet.

(64) According to Facebook’s vice president Elliot Schrage, the company is simply making changes to improve its service, and if people don’t share information, they have a “less SATisfying experience.”

Some critics think this is more about Facebook looking to make more money. Its original business model, which involved selling ads and putting them at the side of the page, totally failed. Who wants to look at ads when they’re online connecting with their friends?

The privacy issue has already landed Facebook in hot water in Washington. In April, Senator Charles Schumer called on Facebook to change its privacy policy.(65) He also urged the Commission to set guidelines for social-networking sites. “I think the senators rightly communicated that we had not been clear about what the new products were and how people could choose to use them or not to use them,” Schrage admits.

I suspect that whatever Facebook has done so far to invade our privacy, it’s only the beginning. Which is why I’m considering deACTivating my account. Facebook is a handy site, (66) but I’m upset by the idea that my information is in the hands of people I don’t trust. That is too high a price to pay.

62. What do we learn about Facebook from the first paragraph?

A) It is a website that sends messages to targeted users.

B) It makes money by putting on advertisements.

C) It profits by selling its user’s personal data

D) It provides loads of information to its users

答案：C

解析：定位至首段二句，profits改写原文make money。

63. What does the author say about most Facebook users?

A) They are reluctant to give up their personal information

B) They don’t know their personal data enriches Facebook

C) They don’t identify themselves when using website

D) They care very little about their personal information

答案：B

解析：定位至三段首句，know改写原文realize, enrich是原文this代指的上段“Facebook获益”的内容。

64. Why does Facebook make changes to its rules according to Elliot Schrage?

A) To render better service to its users

B) To conform to the Federal guidelines

C) To improve its users’ connectivity

D) To expand its scope of business

答案：A

解析：定位至四段首句，render better改写原文improve。

65. What dies Senator Charles Schumer advocate?

A) Setting guidelines for advertising on websites

B) Banning the sharing of user’s personal information

C) Formulating regulations for social-networking sites

D) Removing ads from all social-networking sites

答案：C

解析：定位至六段二句，set guidelines改写原文formulate regualtions。

66. Why does the author plan to cancel his Facebook account?

A) He is disSATisfied with its current service

B) He finds many of its users untrustworthy

C) He doesn’t want his personal data abused

D) He is upset by its frequent rule changes

答案：C

解析：定位至末段but后，可知作者就是对个人信息泄漏这件事情不满。

快速阅读 by 夏伟

来自2008年5月17日Newsweek

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/05/17/small-schools-rising.html

Small Schools Rising

Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with students counted in the thousands. (1) As baby boomers came of high-school age, big schools promised economic efficiency, a GREater choice of courses, and, of course, better football teams. Only years later did we understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of excessive bureaucracies, the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students. (2) SAT scores began dropping in 1963; today, on average, 30 percent of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50 % in poor urban neighborhoods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven standards as set in No Child Left Behind resulted in significantly better performance in elementary (and some middle) schools, high schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little proGREss.

Size isn't everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable countertrend toward smaller schools. This has been due, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, (3)helping to open about 1,000 small schools—most of them with about 400 kids each, with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independent public charter schools, such as No. 1 BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 high-schoolers and 18 graduates this year. It embraces district-sanctioned magnet schools, such as the Talented and Gifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and Engineering Magnet, with 383, which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors School in Buffalo, N.Y., which GREw out of volunteer evening seminars for students. And it includes alternative schools with students selected by lottery, such as H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. (4) And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted thousands of students all marching to the same band.

Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif., is one of those, ranking No. 423—among the top 2 percent in the country—on NEWSWEEK's annual ranking of America's top high schools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. (5) Ten years ago, when the first NEWSWEEK list based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full NEWSWEEK list of the top 5 percent of schools nationally, available on Newsweek.com, had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.

(6) Although many of Hillsdale's students came from wealthy households, by the late 1990s average test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname "Hillsjail." Jeff Gilbert, a Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching students file out of a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, "How did that student graduate?"

So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three "houses," romantically designated Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. (7) The closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of "advisory" classes. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad SATurday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students' success. "We're constantly talking about one another's advisees, " says English teacher Chris Crockett. "If you hear that yours isn't doing well in algebra, or see them sitting outside the dean's office, it's like a personal failure." Along with the new structure came a more demanding academic program; the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95. "It was rough for some, but by senior year, two thirds have moved up to physics," says Gilbert. "Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them." But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution

The NEWSWEEK list of top U.S. high schools was made this year, as in years past, according to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams. (8) Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it's easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if they'd like.

Ranking schools is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation. "It is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' in the nation," their letter read, in part. (9) "Determining whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students' overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities."

In the end, the superintendents aGREed to provide the data we sought, which is, after all, public information. (10) There is, in our view, no real dispute here; we are all seeking the same thing, which is schools that better serve our children and our nation by encouraging students to tackle tough subjects under the guidance of gifted teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps, a list won't be necessary.

1. Fifty years ago, big, modern, suburban high school were establish in the hope of

A) ensuring no child is left behind

B) increasing economic efficiency

C) improving student’ performance on SAT

D) providing good education for baby boomers

答案：B

解析：定位至首段第二句，B选项即是句中提到的三个希望(promise)之一。

2. What happened as a result of setting up big schools?

A) Teachers’ workload increased.

B) Students’ performance declined.

C) Administration became centralized.

D) Students’ focused more on test scores.

答案：B

解析：定位至首句倒数第二句，B选项是对该句学生成绩差具体事例的改写。

3. What is said about the schools funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?

A) They are usually magnet schools.

B) They are often located in poor neighborhoods.

C) They are popular with high-achieving students.

D) They are mostly small in size.

答案：D

解析：定位至二段二句，D选项改写原文small schools。

4. What is most noticeable about the current trend in high school education?

A) Some large schools have split up into smaller ones.

B) A GREat variety of schools have sprung up urban.

C) Many schools compete for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds.

D) Students have to meet higher academic standards.

答案：A

解析：定位至原文二段末句，A是对该句前半部分的改写。

5. Newsweek ranked high schools according to            .

A) Their students’ academic achievement.

B) The number of their students admitted to college.

C) The size and number of their graduating classes.

D) Their college-level test participation.

答案：D

解析：定位至原文三段第三句，D来自于该句中部。

6. What can we learn about Hillsdale’s students in the late 1990s?

A) They were made to study like prisoners.

B) They called each other by unaffectionate nickname.

C) Most of them did not have any sense of discipline.

D) Their school performance was getting worse.

答案：D

解析：定位至原文四段首句，D改写自原文score sliding。

7. According to Jeff Gilbert, the “advisory” classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could ______.

答案：maintain closer relationships with their teacher

解析：定位至第五段中部。

8. ______ is still considered a strength of Newsweek’s schools ranking system in spite of the criticism it receives.

答案：Simplicity

解析：定位至原文倒数第三段第二、三两句。

9. According to the 38 superintendents, to rank schools scientifically, it is necessary to use ______.

答案：different measures

解析：定位至原文倒数第二段，necessary对应原文require。

10. To better serve the children and our nation, schools should hire gifted teachers and encourage students to take ______.

答案：tough subjects

解析：定位至末段第二句。

翻译 by 曹林权

82. I think that the meal is well (没有折扣的情况下值80美元)

答案：worth 80 dollars before discount.

考点：worth的用法

83. (面对来自其它公司的激烈竞争), the automobile manufACTure is considering launching a promotion campaign.

答案：Confronted with the intense rivalry from the competitors

考点：分句与主句的关系

84. As far as hobbies are concerned, Jane and her sister (几乎没有什么共同之处)

答案：almost have nothing in common with each other.

考点： 短语的用法

85. Only after many failures (我才意识到仅凭运气是不能成功的)

答案：did I realize that nobody would succeed solely because of their good luck.

考点：倒装句和时态

86. But for the survival instinct which nearly all creatures have, (更多的物种就可能已经在地球上灭绝了)

答案：more species would have extinguished from the Earth.

考点：表过去相反的虚拟语气