A report from the Pew Research Center released last week shows that marriage has undergone significant changes over the last several decades as women’s earning power and education developed more quickly than that of their husbands. While men and worrier still may be getting used to the shift, the overall effect seems to be positive. Men are taking on more housework and women are earning more outside the home, and—surprise! — divorce rates are dropping. “Women no longer need to marry up educationally or economically, so they are more likely to pick men who support a more egalitarian relationship,“ says Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. The divorce rate peaked in the late 1970s, at 23 divorces per 1 000 couples, according to the Times. But it has since dropped: There are fewer than 17 divorces per 1 000 marriages today. And. according to a recent report, typically, women with economic independence and education are more likely to stay married. And, get this: In states where fewer wives have paid jobs, divorce rates are higher. While the earnings gap has yet to close completely, women aged 30 to 44 now make up the majority of US college graduates, and their earnings grew 44 percent from 1970 to 2007, according to the Pew study. That’s compared to a six percent growth in earnings for men over the same time period. However, don’t get too excited, ladies—research shows that you still bear most of the household responsibilities in spite of your earning power. The University of Wisconsin’s National Survey on Households and Families mows that among working couples, women still do two-thirds of the housework. The good news, though, is that men are now spending more time with their kids. The same survey reveals that the amount of time dads spend with their children has increased by three times.

M: Owen just bought a second-hand TV. Do you know the price he paid for it? W: It’s $ 50. And I think he got a real bargain. Q: What does the woman think of the price of the TV? It’s too high. It’s just so-so. It could be lower. It s really low.

(14)Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual or sole ownership. The owner owns all of the property of the business and is responsible for everything. For legal purposes, with this kind of business, the owner and the company are the same.(15)This means the owner gets to keep all of the profits of the business, but must also pay any debt. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls. One kind of partnership is called a limited liability partnership. These have full partners and limited partners.(16)Limited partners may not share as much in the profits, but they also have less responsibility for the business. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share their risks and profits. A husband and wife can form a business partnership together.(17)Partnerships exist only for as long as the owners remain alive. The same is true of individual ownerships. Corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime, so a corporation is the most complex kind of business organization. 14. What does this passage mainly talk about? 15. What can we learn about a sole ownership? 16. What can we learn about limited partners in a limited liability partnership? 17. What is a common point between partnerships and individual ownerships? Types of business organizations. Management of the sole ownership. Complexity of the corporation. Differences between the sole ownership and the partnership.

Parents are often upset when their children praise the homes of their friends. They may even【T1】______them of disloyalty, or make some bad remarks about the friends’ parents. Such a loss of dignity and descent into childish【T2】______on the part of the adults deeply【T3】______the adolescents so, th,at they will not talk to their parents about the places or people they visit. Before very long the parents will be【T4】______that the child is so secretive and never tells them anything, but they seldom【T5】______that they have brought this on themselves. 【T6】______with the parents, however good and adequate they may be both as parents and as 【T7】______, is to some degree inevitable. Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched 【T8】______, and how much this faith means to a child. If parents were prepared for this adolescent reaction,【T9】______, and they were developing valuable powers of observation and independent judgment, they would not be so hurt, and therefore,【T10】______

Fire, scientists agree, helped give rise to a successful, thriving human population by providing heat for cooking and protection from the cold. But they don’t agree【C1】______when humans began using fire. Some researchers argue that it【C2】______more than a million years ago when early humans【C3】______their way to Europe from Africa, and【C4】______say it happened much later. Now, a new study reveals that humans did not【C5】______fire until about 400 000 years ago. Two archaeologists(考古学家)in the US report their【C6】______in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They looked at excavation(发掘)reports and studies from 141 sites in Europe that were【C7】______1.2 million and 35 000 years old. They think there is no clear evidence of【C8】______fire use until about 400 000 years ago. In Africa,【C9】______there are several sites where there was evidence of fire, those may have been【C10】______fires that occurred in the African grassland.【C11】______, there are also sites older than 400 000 years in Europe that indicate the【C12】______of humans, with the oldest, in Spain, more than a million years old. This means that【C13】______Europe’s extreme winter climates, early humans found a way to【C14】______without the warmth of a fire.【C15】______the researchers mention, early humans are【C16】______and persistent(坚持的). But some researchers【C17】______that it is still a puzzling explanation and it still【C18】______some serious thinking about how【C19】______the human being could have survived on a seasonally【C20】______food supply despite having small teeth and small guts. Up to now, no one has solved this problem yet.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic Communication in Dormitory. You should write at least 100 words, and base your composition on the outline given in Chinese below: 1．沟通是保持和谐宿舍生活的最佳方法 2．如何进行沟通

As more and more people lose their jobs, now it’s perhaps the time to consider the experience of unemployment. What are the first feelings? Well, losing a job, or not being able to find one, always brings unwelcome changes.(11)As well as the loss of income, many people find the whole routine of their life is destroyed, their contact with other people reduces, their dreams break and their identity as a worker disappears. At first, there may be good feelings too—a new and better job is just around the corner—it is nice to be able to lie in bed in the morning or spend more time with the children. But, unless a better job does turn up, chances are the days start getting longer and time becomes harder to fill for those who cannot find a job for a long time.(12)Many people pass through periods of difficulty in sleeping and eating. They feel irritable and depressed, often isolated and lonely.(13)Despite all these problems though, unemployment can be a chance for a fresh start. You can discover that it provides an opportunity to rethink what you want from life. You can use the time to plan how to find a new job, learn a new skill, develop a new hobby or see if you can start your own business. 11. What’s people’s first negative reaction when they lose a job? 12. Which is an impossible reaction of people out of work for a long time? 13. What is an advantage of unemployment according to the passage? They have more time to contact with others. They feel free from work restrictions.. They have a vision of a new job. They find their daily life spoiled.

A group of scientists known for their skepticism about climate change has reanalysed two centuries’ worth of global temperature records. Their study largely confirms previous ones: it finds strong evidence that Earth is getting hotter. “The valid issues raised by climate skeptics, when addressed fully and in detail, do not significantly change the answer,“ says lead author Richard Muller of the University of California, Berkeley. In a testimony (证据) to the US Congress earlier this year, Muller questioned whether global temperature records showed a significant warming during the 20th century. His project, the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST), has now pulled together global temperature data going back to 1800 from 15 sources, including data sets held by the World Meteorological Organization and US and UK government agencies. BEST concludes that land temperatures have risen by 1°C since the 1950s. This is largely in line with the three existing global temperature records: GISTEMP, maintained by NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GHCN and HadCRU, kept by the UK Met Office. The 1°C of warming reflects warming above land masses only, so it is not yet a truly global estimate. In a series of papers that have not yet been estimated but are available on the BEST website, the researchers examine how reliable the temperature data is. Contrary to earlier studies that are often quoted by climate skeptics, the BEST researchers find that including data from weather stations in cities—which are warmer than rural areas—makes little difference to the overall trend. “Urban warming doesn’t unduly (过分地) bias estimates of recent global temperature change,“ they say. Blogger Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That has repeatedly claimed that temperature data is unreliable because weather stations are poorly placed—for instance, next to air-conditioning vents or other heat sources. However, BEST finds no statistically significant difference in the trends seen at well-placed and poorly placed stations.

The benefits of quitting smoking—reduced risk of cancer and many other health problems—are known. But for millions of smokers, the【D1】______effect of a cigarette can be reason enough to start up again. Studies have found, however, that in reality, lighting up has the【D2】______effect, causing long-term stress levels to rise, not fall. For those dependent on smoking, the only stress it【D3】______is the withdrawal between cigarettes. In a recent study【D4】______at the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, researchers looked at 469 people who tried to quit after being【D5】______for heart disease. At the start, the subjects had similar levels of stress and generally believed that smoking helped them to cope. A year later, 41% had managed to stay abstinent(节制的). After controlling for many a【D6】______, the scientists found that the abstainers had “a【D7】______larger decrease in perceived stress,“ roughly a 20% drop, compared with the continuing smokers, who showed little change. The scientists’【D8】______was that the continuing smokers were dealing with uncomfortable cravings(渴望)between cigarettes multiple times a day, while the abstainers, after facing some initial withdrawal, had greater freedom from nicotine cravings and thus had【D9】______a frequent and significant source of stress. Other studies have also found that smokers experience higher levels of stress and【D10】______between cigarettes and lower levels over all when they quit. A)relieves F)suffered K)conducted B)summary G)factor L)hypothesis C)calming H)eliminated M)negative D)tension I)opposite N)hospitalized E)significantly J)causes O)dominantly

If you had done as he had suggested,______(你就不会犯这样的错误了).

The reason why he was late for school is______(今天早上他睡过头了) .

______(全世界都知道), Mark Twain is a great American writer.

The conference______(将会持续一整周) by the time it ends.

On October 31, a newborn baby somewhere in the world will become the 7 billionth member of the human race. Or so says the UN—alternatively, this date could be at least a year too early. Behind the UN’s certainty may lay outdated and unreliable census data. The suspicion is that millions of births and deaths have not been counted and there is huge uncertainty about the rate at which women are giving birth. The precise “day of 7 billion“ may not matter much. But the inaccuracies(不精确)make it harder to answer a more important question: is human population set to peak within the next few decades or will it carry on growing beyond that? Wolfgang Lutz of the Vienna Institute of Demography says the UN is “under political pressure to disregard(忽视)uncertainty and name a date“ for 7 billion. But he and colleague Sergei Scherbov estimate that the world probably won’t reach 7 billion until early in 2013, though it could be as late as 2020. The director of the UN population division Hania Zlotnik defends her data but agrees that “an interval of a few months or even a year would be a reasonable range of uncertainty“. One problem for demographers(人口统计学家)is undercounting. Even developed countries calculate their censuses miss up to 3 percent of people. Up-to-date figures have to adjust for both of this and the changes since the last census， which could be decades in the case of some African countries. So adjusting for extra people is routine. The big danger, Scherbov says, may be over-adjusting. The world has seen a dramatic decline in fertility in recent years, with the average woman now having only 2. 5 children, half as many as her grandmother 50 years ago. So there may be far fewer new arrivals than demographers assume. Questions:

Researchers from the University of Plymouth in England wondered whether mood might affect the way kids learn. To find out, they performed two learning experiments with children. The first experiment enlisted 30 kids, ages 10 and 11. Each child was given 20 problems in which a triangle or houselike shape was hidden inside a different, larger image. The kids had to find the small shape while sitting in a room with, either happy or sad classical music playing in the background. As a measure of mood, the scientists asked the kids to point to one of five faces, ranging from happy to sad. Children listening to the happy music tended to point to the smiling faces, indicating that they felt happy. Kids surrounded by sad tunes pointed instead to the frowns. The researchers found that sad kids took at least a second less to find the small shapes. The sad kids also correctly identified an average of three or four more shapes. In the second experiment, 61 children, ages 6 and 7, faced the same type of shape-finding problems. Instead of listening to different types of music, though, they watched one of three scenes from a film. One scene was happy. One was neutral. One was sad. In this study, kids’ moods tended to reflect the scene they had seen. And just like in the first experiment, kids who felt sad or neutral performed better on the tests compared to happier kids. They solved an average of two or three more problems. The researchers hypothesize(假设)that feeling down makes people more aware of details, perhaps because sadness makes us more likely to focus on a problem or difficult situation. Some studies suggest that mildly sad adults do better than happy ones on tests of memory, judgment and argument that involve attention to detail. Questions:

W: How long does it take you to go to school every day? M: Well, 15 minutes’ walk to the bus stop from my house, and then 20 minutes’ bus trip to my school. Q: How long does the man spend on his way to school? 15 minutes. 20 minutes. 25 minutes. 35 minutes.

Have you ever had problems in your life and don’t know how to be happy? If so, you will find the book Being a Happy Teenager by(14)Australian writer Andrew Matthews useful. In his book, Matthews tells us how to live a happy life and answers the questions from teenagers. There are many subjects such as parents and friends, and the book says we should stop being angry and forgive. The book tells us useful skills, such as how to put what you have learned into pictures of your mind to make your memory better. Many teenagers think tha,t happiness comes from a good exam result or. praise from other people. But you can still be happy when there are no such “good“ things. Success comes from a good attitude. If you learn from problems, you will have success in the future. Some school boys have problems such as being too tall or too short.(15)But Matthews tells us happiness comes from thinking about things in a positive way. If you are tall, people notice you, and you can get a better view at the movie: if you are short, your clothes and shoes take less room in your bedroom!(16)Anyway, this is Matthews’ most important lesson in this book: You choose to be happy! 14. Where does Matthews come from? 15. What does Matthews think happiness comes from? 16. What is Matthews’ most important lesson? Australia. America. England. Austria.

Do you know how to use a mobile phone without being rude to the people around you? Talking during a performance irritates (激怒) people. If you are expecting an emergency call, sit near the exit doors and set your phone to vibrate (振动). When your mobile phone vibrates, you can leave quietly and let the others enjoy the performance. Think twice before using mobile phones in elevators, museums, churches or other indoor public places— especially enclosed spaces. Would you want to listen to someone’s conversation in these places? Worse yet, how would you feel if a mobile phone rang suddenly during a funeral? It happens more often than you think. Avoid these embarrassing situations by making sure your mobile phone is switched off. When eating at a restaurant with friends, don’t place your mobile phone on the table. This conveys the message that your phone calls are more important than those around you. Mobile phones have sensitive microphones that allow you to speak at the volume you would on a regular phone. This enables you to speak quietly so that others won’t hear the details of your conversations. If you are calling from a noisy area, use your hand to direct your voice into the microphone. Many people believe that they can’t live without their mobile phones. Owning a mobile phone definitely makes life more convenient, but limit your conversations to urgent ones and save the personal calls until you are at home.

A report from the Pew Research Center released last week shows that marriage has undergone significant changes over the last several decades as women’s earning power and education developed more quickly than that of their husbands. While men and worrier still may be getting used to the shift, the overall effect seems to be positive. Men are taking on more housework and women are earning more outside the home, and—surprise! — divorce rates are dropping. “Women no longer need to marry up educationally or economically, so they are more likely to pick men who support a more egalitarian relationship,“ says Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. The divorce rate peaked in the late 1970s, at 23 divorces per 1 000 couples, according to the Times. But it has since dropped: There are fewer than 17 divorces per 1 000 marriages today. And. according to a recent report, typically, women with economic independence and education are more likely to stay married. And, get this: In states where fewer wives have paid jobs, divorce rates are higher. While the earnings gap has yet to close completely, women aged 30 to 44 now make up the majority of US college graduates, and their earnings grew 44 percent from 1970 to 2007, according to the Pew study. That’s compared to a six percent growth in earnings for men over the same time period. However, don’t get too excited, ladies—research shows that you still bear most of the household responsibilities in spite of your earning power. The University of Wisconsin’s National Survey on Households and Families mows that among working couples, women still do two-thirds of the housework. The good news, though, is that men are now spending more time with their kids. The same survey reveals that the amount of time dads spend with their children has increased by three times.

______(我突然想起来了) that I still owed 200 dollars to my friend Tom.

The big changes in marriage are mainly caused by the fact that______.

The word “egalitarian“(Para. 3)most probably means______.

It is implied that compared with women with paid jobs, women without jobs______.

Why shouldn’t women feel excited now?

Which of the following can best describe the tone of the passage?