The core of Greece’ s troubles is too much spending, too little tax-collecting and book-cooking. Spain and Ireland are in trouble even if the percentage of their public debt in gross domestic product is much smaller than that of Germany. Italy, also in the financial markets’ crosshairs, has high public debt but a lower deficit than the eurozone’ s average. The root of these countries’ problems is that their prices and wages have risen much faster than those of other eurozone members. There are two ways to mitigate the pain. First, to adopt temporarily more expansionary fiscal policies for a while. Or, more powerfully, the wider euro area could adopt more expansionary monetary policies for several years. As to the second option, the “inflation fundamentalists“ will have none of it. This elite consisting of central bankers, top economic officials, politicians, academics and journalists insists that it is unacceptable to allow inflation to climb above two percent. Hyper-inflation in Germany in the 1930s and stagflation in industrial countries in the 1970s and 1980s support their view. It’ s true that moderate inflation can creep up to become high inflation. But inflation fundamentalism can also hurt. There is little if any empirical evidence that moderate inflation hurts growth. In most countries, cutting actual wages is politically difficult if not impossible. But, to regain competitiveness and balance the books, real wage adjustments are sometimes inevitable. A slightly higher level of inflation allows for this painful adjustment with a lower level of political conflict. On the other hand, ultra-low inflation, in a recession, can easily become deflation. Falling prices encourage people to defer spending, which makes things worse and erodes tax payments, impairing a government’ s ability to pay debt. That in turn increases the debt’ s size and costs. In addition, a single-minded focus on inflation makes it easy for policymakers to lose sight of the broader picture-asset prices, growth and employment. Policy can become too tight or too loose—as in the run-up to the crisis in the U. S. when low inflation was seen as a comforting sign that things were in order. In a recession, ultra-low inflation also reduces the effectiveness of monetary policy since interest rates cannot go below zero. The crisis in the euro area highlights the need for a more open-minded discussion of the merits and costs of ultra-low inflation.

How many people applied but didn’t run the race?A million people came to London on May 9 to watch 16,000 people run 26 miles. The event was the London Marathon, which looked like one of the fastest growing sports in the 1980s. 70,000 people had applied to take part in the race, but the number had to be restricted to 16,000 for safety reasons. Running through a big and friendly crowd which lined the whole course, the competitors followed a route which took them through the center of London, finishing near the House of Parliament. Well, they weren’t really competitors. The fastest man finished in 2 hours 9 minutes, and the fastest woman in 2 hours 29 minutes—but most people weren’t trying to beat the clock, they were just interested in seeing if they could actually run 26 miles. However, one of the runners collapsed 50 meters from the end; The crowd yelled encouragement and applauded as three times he tried to stand up—and three times fell down. Then, on his fourth attempt, he managed to stand up, and finished the race. Another was so exhausted that he crossed the finish line on his hands and knees. 16,000. 10,000. 67000 54000

The social sciences are flourishing. As of 2005, there were almost half a million professional social scientists from all fields in the world, working both inside and outside academia. According to the World Social Science Report 2010, the number of social-science students worldwide has swollen by about 11% every year since 2000. Yet this enormous resource in not contributing enough to today’ s global challenges including climate change, security, sustainable development and health. 【R1】______ Humanity has the necessary agro-technological tools to eradicate hunger, from genetically engineered crops to artificial fertilizers. Here, too, the problems are social: the organization and distribution of food, wealth and prosperity. 【R2】______ This is a shame—the community should be grasping the opportunity to raise its influence in the real world. To paraphrase the great social scientist Joseph Schumpeter: there is no radical innovation without creative destruction. Today, the social sciences are largely focused on disciplinary problems and internal scholarly debates, rather than on topics with external impact. Analyses reveal that the number of papers including the keywords “environmental changed“ or “climate change“ have increased rapidly since 2004, 【R3】______. When social scientists do tackle practical issues, their scope is often local; Belgium is interested mainly in the effects of poverty on Belgium for example. And whether the community’ s work contributes much to an overall accumulation of knowledge is doubtful. The problem is not necessarily the amount of available funding. 【R4】______This is an adequate amount so long as it is aimed in the right direction. Social scientists who complain a-bout a lack of funding should not expect more in today’ s economic climate. The trick is to direct these funds better. The European Union Framework funding programs have long had a category specifically targeted at social scientists. This year, it was proposed that system be changed: Horizon 2020, a new program to be enacted in 2014, would not have such a category. This has resulted in protests from social scientists. But the intention is not to neglect social science; rather, the complete opposite. 【R5】______That should create more collaborative endeavors and help to develop projects aimed directly at solving global problems. [A] It could be that we are evolving two communities of social scientists; one that is discipline-oriented and publishing in highly specialized journals, and one that is problem-oriented and publishing elsewhere, such as policy briefs. [B] However, the numbers are still small; in 2010, about 1,600 of the 100,000 social-sciences papers published globally included one of these Keywords. [C] the idea is to force social to integrate their work with other categories, including health and demographic change food security, marine research and the bio-economy, clear, efficient energy; and inclusive, innovative and secure societies. [D] the solution is to change the mindset of the academic community, and what it considers to be its main goal. Global challenges and social innovation ought to receive much more attention from scientists, especially the young ones. [E] These issues all have root causes in human behavior, all require behavioral change and social innovations, as well as technological development. Stemming climate change, for example, is as much about changing consumption patterns and promoting tax acceptance as it is about developing clean energy. [F] Despite these factors, many social scientists seem reluctant to tackle such problems. And in Europe, some are up in arms over a proposal to drop a specific funding category for social-science research and to integrate it within cross-cutting topics of sustainable development. [G] During the late 1990s, national spending on social sciences and the humanities as a percentage of all research and development funds—including government, higher education, no-profit and corporate—varied from around 4% to 25%; in most European nations, it is about 15%.

As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees. These policies can be simple exhortations in broad, highly-generalized language(typically called a corporate ethics statement), or they can be more detailed policies, containing specific behavioral requirements(typically called corporate ethics codes). 【T1】They are generally meant to identify the company’ s expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might a-rise in the course of doing business. 【T2】It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness, consistency in application, and the avoidance of ethical disasters. 【T3】An increasing number of companies also requires employees to attend seminars regarding business conduct, which often include discussion of the company’ s policies, specific case studies, and legal requirements. Some companies even require their employees to sign agreements stating that they will abide by the company’ s rules of conduct. Many companies are assessing the environmental factors that can lead employees to engage in unethical conduct. A competitive business environment may call for unethical behavior. Lying has become expected in fields such as trading. An example of this are the issues surrounding the unethical actions of the Saloman Brothers. Not everyone supports corporate policies that govern ethical conduct. Some claim that ethical problems are better dealt with by depending upon employees to use their own judgment. Others believe that corporate ethics policies are primarily rooted in utilitarian concerns, and that they are mainly to limit the company’ s legal liability, or to curry public favor by giving the appearance of being a good corporate citizen. Ideally, the company will avoid a lawsuit because its employees will follow the rules. 【T4】Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly. Sometimes there is disconnection between the company’ s code of ethics and the company’ s actual practices. 【T5】Thus, whether or not such conduct is explicitly sanctioned by management, at worst, this makes the policy duplicitous(搞两面派的), and, at best, it is merely a marketing tool.

Read the following text(s) and write an essay to 1) summarize the main points of the text(s), 2)make clear your own viewpoints, and 3) justify your stand. In your essay, make full use of the information provided in the text(s). If you use more than three consecutive words from the text(s), use quotation marks(“ “). You should write 160 -200 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Plastic, it seems, is no longer fantastic. Even Hollywood, that factory of artifice, is demanding a return to reality when it comes to women’s bodies. Disney Studio’ s recent casting call for female extras for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film included a surprise announcement; “Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants. “ Surgically enhanced breasts might still be considered sexy or essential by airhead starlets and models, but the new buzzword in America is “authenticity“. That’ s why, for women in the public eye, having fake breasts is looking increasingly less like a career move and more like career suicide. Another indication that fake breasts are going bust is the fact that television shows such as Extreme Makeover and The Swan (TV which promised to nip and tuck ordinary women into goddesses) have been cancelled, while statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that the number of breast enlargements in America fell from 365,000 to 312,000 last year. In many surveys, research has shown that the larger the breasts, the more stupid a woman is considered to be. Other women, meanwhile, consider women with large breasts as a threat—so having a surgical enhancement is a lose-lose situation. Chantelle Houghton (from Big Brother remember her?) almost immediately regretted getting implants to boost her chest and admits that they were “taking over her life“ , and she had to resort to physiotherapy to deal with the back pain they caused. Even Sharon Osborne, voted the queen of nip and tuck, said recently: “I wish I’d never had my breasts done. It’s like having a waterbed on your chest. I hate them. I want to have the bags taken out—then I’ll put them on eBay. “ The more stories we hear like this the better, because then perhaps young women will realize that large breasts aren’ t the assets they thinkthey are—or Hollywood has made them out to be.

[*]Born and raised in Ohio, I’m a country girl. I’m currently studying to become a therapist, a career path that marks a great achievement for me. At Ohio State University, admission into the physical therapy program is intensely competitive. I made it pass the first cut the first year I applied, but was turned down for admission. I was crushed, because for years I have been determined to become a physical therapist. I received advice from friends and relatives about changing my major and finding another course for my life. I just couldn’t do it. I knew I could not be as happy in another profession. So I stilled myself, began to work seriously for another year and reapplied. Happily I received notice of my admission. Later, I found out that less than 15% of the applicants had been offered positions that year. Now in the first two years of professional training, I couldn’t be happier with my decision not to give up on my dream. My father told me that if I wanted it badly enough, I would get in. Well, Daddy, I wanted it. So there. After graduation, I would like to travel to another country, possibly a Latin American country and work in a children’s hospital for a year or two.

[*]W: Morning! Can I help you? M: Well, I’ m not really sure. I’ m just looking. W: I see. Well, there’ s plenty to look at again this year. I’ m sure you have to walk miles to see each stand. M: That’ s true. W: Er..., would you like a coffee? Come and sit down for a minute, no obligation. M: Well, that’ s very kind of you, but... W: Now, please. Is this the first year you’ ve been to the fair, Mr... M: Yes, Johnson, James Johnson. W: My name’ s Susan Carter. Are you looking for anything in particular, or are you interested in computers in general? M: Well, actually, I have some specific jobs in mind. I own a small company, we’ ve grown quite dramatically over the past 12 months, and we really need some technological help to enable us to keep on top of everything. W: What’ s your line of business, Mr. Johnson? M: We’ re a training consultancy. W: I see. And what do you mean “to keep on top“ ? M: The first thing is correspondence. We have a lot of standard letters and forms. So I suppose we need some kind of word processor. W: Right. Well, that’ s no problem. But it may be possible for you to get a system that does a lot of other things in addition to word processing. What might suit you is the MR5000. That’ s it over there! It’ s IBM compatible. M: What about the price? W: Well, the MR5000 costs 1, 050 pounds. Software comes free with the hardware. M: Well, I’ 11 think about it. Thank you. W: Here’ s my card. Please feel free to contact me.

Which of the following is covered in BCD International programs?Good evening. You are listening to Pop World of BCD International. I’m Sally Brown. Today, we are going to hear several current hits of the world’s most popular artists. Well, at the beginning, I would like to say a few words to my dear listeners who are not very familiar with this program. Because many people want to listen to and understand pop songs, radio producers at BCD International have made hundreds of programs over the years. We not only have access to the stars of the music world, but also have a vast library of “golden oldie“ classics, as well as the “latest releases“ . For those of you who like a bit of background of your favorite music— there are The History of Pop and The Road to Music. These two series bring you the language of pop music and information about the periods and the artists. If you want to hear from the artists themselves, there’s a new series called About the Big Hits. This is based on interviews with popular singers and songwriters. They talk to us about the meanings and ideas behind their songs. If you want to understand the words to the big music hits, Pop Words is the program for you. After all, it’s hard enough for native English speakers to understand most pop songs—so, if English isn’t your first language, you shouldn’t be surprised if the words to many songs leave you in the dark. It was to address exactly this problem that BCD International started broadcasting Pop Words just over 23 years ago...[fade out] Interviews with radio producers. A large variety of pop songs. News from the music library. Stories about the good old days.

What is Einstein’ s greatest contribution to human beings?Born in 1879, in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was two years old when his parents moved to Munich. There his father opened a business in electrical supplies. As a boy, Einstein did not learn to talk until later than others of his age, and in his early childhood he was not considered especially bright. But by the time he was 14 years old, he had taught himself advanced mathematics from textbooks. By them he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. He wanted to be a physicist and devote himself to research. Einstein could not afford to pay for the advanced education he needed, because his family business had declined. Later, he and his family were forced to leave Munich to live in Milan, Italy, where they had relatives. As for him, the family did manage to send him to a technical school in Switzerland, and later to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 1901, when Einstein was 22 years old, he began teaching, and in 1902, he went to work as a patent office examiner in Bern. Now able to pay his own expenses, he continued his schooling at the University of Zurich, where he received a doctor’ s degree in 1905. This was the period when he first began the research, which led to his famous theory of relativity. Toward the end of his life, when Einstein was asked to explain his law of relativity to a group of young students, he said, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it’ s only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it’ s two hours. That is relativity. “ His teaching. His theory of relativity. His theory on advanced mathematics. His research.

U. S. health officials are increasing surveillance measures at doctors’ offices and international borders to guard against the spread of swine flu. Washington also has begun dispersing medicine from a federal stockpile. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been only mild cases of swine flu in the United States, but experts remain on guard. Acting agency director, Richard Besser, says the epidemic in Mexico prompted U. S. doctors to begin monitoring actively for possible infections. “We are asking doctors when they see someone who has flu-like illness who has traveled to an affected region, to do a culture, take a swab in the nose and send it to the lab so we can see: is it influenza, is it this type?“ he said. Speaking Sunday at the White House, Besser said the extra detection efforts have enabled officials to find more infections than under normal circumstances. He also says he expects the number of infections will rise and the illness will spread to other U. S. regions, as doctors continue to monitor the problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it does not recommend people travel to Mexico, where the outbreak of swine flu is centered and more than 100 deaths have been reported. But officials have not ordered a travel ban to the country. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says, instead, airlines have the option of screening passengers on flights from Mexico. “We are letting air carriers and our employees at the gates on those flights make sure that they are asking people if they are sick; and if they are sick, that they should not board the plane, “ she said. Denise Korniewiez, an infectious disease expert at the University of Miami, says officials should take bolder steps to screen passengers at international borders, as Japan and other Asian nations are doing. “We have a very transient population here. And Japan has taken a lot of precautions. What Japan is doing is they are making everyone take a temperature when they get off the airplane, “ she said. “As far as I am concerned, I think that is a good idea. U. S. officials say they are holding off on more aggressive actions because the outbreak has been limited in the United States and they do not want to cause a health scare. Korniewicz says around the country health centers are putting in place emergency response measures aimed at limiting disease outbreaks.

Among the raft of books, articles, jokes, romantic comedies, self-help guides and other writings discussing marriage, some familiar ideas often crop up. Few appear more often than the 【C1】______that many old couples look alike. You have probably seen it before—two elderly people walking hand-in-hand down the street or sitting at a cafe,【C2】______each other so strongly that they could be siblings. Do these couples actually look alike, and if【C3】______what has caused them to develop this way? A study published in the March 2006 issue of Personality and Individual Differences may have the【C4】______. Twenty-two people, divided equally between male and female, participated in the study. They were asked to judge the looks, personalities and ages of 160 married couples. The participants viewed photographs of men and women separately and were【C5】______told who was married to whom. The subjects consistently judged people who were married【C6】______being similar【C7】______appearance and personality. The researchers also found that couples who had been together longer appeared more similar. This result【C8】______itself may not seem surprising, but the study also offered some answers on【C9】______ couples may look alike. To start, consider that life experiences can end up being reflected physically. Someone【C10】______is happy and smiles more will develop the facial muscles and wrinkles related to smiling. The years of experience of an elderly couple’ s marriage, happy【C11】______not, would then be reflected in their【C12】______. Genetic influences are【C13】______ factor. A past study showed that genetically similar people have better marriages. Such families have【C14】______incidents of child abuse and a lower rate of miscarriages. People also appear to be more selfless【C15】______involved with genetically similar partners.

Slavery has played a significant role in the history of the U. S. It existed in all the English mainland colonies and most of the Founding Fathers also had slaves, as did eight of the first 12 presidents. Dutch traders brought 20 Africans to Jamestown, Virginia, as early as 1619, however, throughout the 17th century the number of Africans in the English mainland colonies grew very slowly. At that time, colonists used two other sources of unfree labor: Native American slaves and European indentured servants. During those years, every colony had some Native American slaves, but their number was limited. Indian men avoided performing agricultural labor, because they viewed it as women’ s work, and colonists complained that they were too “ haughty“. The more important was that the settlers found it more convenient to sell Native Americans captured in war to planters in the Caribbean than to turn them into slaves, because they often resisted and it was not hard for the slaves to escape. Later, the policy of killing Indians or driving them away from white settlements was proposed and it contradicted with their widespread employment as slaves. The other form of labor was the white indentured servitude. Most indentured servants consisted of poor Europeans. Desiring to escape tough conditions in Europe and take advantage of fabled opportunities in America, they traded three to seven years of their labor in exchange for the transatlantic passage. At first, it was mainly English who were the white indentured servitude but later increasingly Irish, Welsh, and German joined. They were essentially temporary slaves and most of them served as agricultural workers although some, especially in the North, were taught skilled trades. During the 17th century, they performed most of heavy labor in the Southern colonies and also consisted of the bulk of immigrants to those colonies. At the end of the 17 th century, in order to meet the labor need, landowners in America turned to African slaves. During the late 17th and 18th centuries, thanks to the dominant position of England in terms of naval superiority, English traders(some of whom lived in English America)transported millions of Africans across the Atlantic. And the transatlantic slave trade produced one of the largest forced migrations in history, blacks(the great majority of whom were slaves)increasing from about 7 percent of the American population in 1680 to more than 40 percent by the middle of the 18th century.

What is the text mainly about?

The word “books“(line 5, paragraph 4)means______.

We can learn from the fourth paragraph that______.

Which of the following inflation might be accepted by the author?

In the author’ s opinion, the second way to mitigate the pain is______.