The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem. As the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line does, too. Therefore, even with today’s relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs, they ’could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs. For one thing, more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor people are children. By law, children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, the normal retirement age. Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons: they are sick, they do not have any motivation. They have family problems, or they do not believe that they can find a job. Other poor people look for a job but cannot find one. Many poor adults never go to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer. At the present time, the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the following ways. First, if the national economy grows, businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer be below the poverty line. Second, if society invests in the poor, the poor will become more productive. If the government spends money on social programs, education, and training for poor people, the poor will have the skills to offer, then it is more likely that they can find jobs. Finally, if the government distributes society’s income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non-poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare. Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time, many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic: Online Education. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese: 1. 目前网络教育形成热潮 2. 我认为形成这股热潮的原因是 ...... 3. 我对网络教育的评价 Online Education

A furnished house. A recent book. A refinished cellar. A new record.

W: Hi, Peter. M: Judy, I haven’t seen you in weeks. Where have you been.? W: In Florida. M: What? Vacationing while the rest of us have been studying on campus in the February cold. W: Not exactly. I spent most of my time underwater. M: I don’t understand. W: I was on a special field trip. I went with my marine biology class. M: So you went Scuba diving, what were you looking for, sunken treasure? W: You might say so. The sea is full of treasures, ’all kinds of strange fascination things. M: Oh, how wonderful it is. W: Yeah, by concentrating, I was able to see the outlines of lots of different plants and animals under the sea. In fact, our professor even took photographs of small oceanic snails. M: That sounds like a interesting trip. But I think if I’d been in Florida in February, I’d much rather spend my time just swimming and lying ,in the sun. Sightseeing. Lying on the beach. Taking photographs of the beaches. Scuba diving.

Men sometimes say: “We are better and cleverer than women. Women never invent things. We do.“ It is true that men have invented a lot of useful things: the alphabet, machines, rockets, and guns, too. But scientists and archeologists now agree that women invented one very important thing. It has changed history. They invented agriculture. Before the invention of agriculture men were hunters. They went out every day. Sometimes they killed animals sometimes animals killed them. Life was difficult and dangerous. Women had to go out every day, too. They collected roots, fruit and grasses. Then, one day, more than 10,000 years ago, a woman dropped some grass seeds. She dropped them near her home in the Middle East. They grew and the first wheat was born. The idea grew, too. Women planted roots and fruit trees. Then they could stay at home and look after the children — and the animals. Women like baby animals. Archeologists think it was women that kept the first domestic animals: dogs, cows, sheep and goats. That idea grew, too. Then their husband did not have to go hunting for meat. They stayed at home. They built villages and cities. Civilization began. Men began civilization —after women invented agriculture. Men are cleverer than women. Life was difficult and dangerous in ancient times. It was the women’s invention that changed history. Women’s work was at home.

Stress may be defined as an emotional, intellectual, or physical reaction to change or demands. The stress reaction prepares the mind and body to react to any situation that is new, threatening or exciting. The way a person handles stress determines whether it is helpful or harmful, and chronic unrelieved stress can cause headaches, backaches, loss of appetite, fatigue, depression and potentially serious physical problems. As a college student you may face many changes and challenges that can be very stressful. You may experience problems with your roommates, pursue a demanding class load and face tough competition from classmates. Another stressful situation involves decision-making. Whether you are choosing your classes or your career, your available options may be confusing. Other common stressful situations include relationship problems, conflict with parents, and self-esteem and identity issues. In adjusting to the stressful situations and the independent lifestyle of a college student, keep in mind three important concepts -- consequences, change, and cooperation. Every decision you make will have certain consequences. Just remember that even though the decisions you make will be up to you, the results aren’t always as easily controlled. Whenever you find yourself facing a decision, think it through. Carefully consider the options and the consequences before you move forward, and your new independence should be manageable. It is important to remember the key fact that things change. If you are unhappy at first with your life as a college student, don’t give up. With each passing day, some of the hard new edges of the unfamiliar collegiate life will begin to smooth out. Many changes are under your control and the ability to adapt to change provides a great opportunity to learn skills for coping with stress. Taking advantage of the cooperation and resources that can be found on campus is also another factor in controlling stress. There are offices to assist you with the academic, financial, and personal concerns common to college students. Although you may feel isolated sometimes, you do not have to feel alone. Effective stress management includes a healthy diet and exercise habits. Exercising gives you a break from the mental and emotional Strain that you experience while helping to reduce physical tension. It will also increase your stamina (耐力) and your overall physical well-being. In addition, minimize such behaviors as overeating, excessive drinking, smoking, or using mood altering drugs -- all of which are harmful to your health.

As two great nations, the world looks to us to__________(为其他国家树立一个好的榜样).

6No one trusts Dick Runner, for he is never punctual and often _____________(玩忽职守).

I regretted ______the expensive air-conditioner. not to afford not affording not being able to afford I can’t afford

Bows and arrows are one of man’s oldest weapons. They gave early man an effective weapon to kill his enemies. The ordinary bow or short bow was used by nearly all early people. This bow had limited power and short range. However, man overcame these faults by learning to track his targets at a close range. The long bow was most likely discovered when someone found out that a five-foot piece of wood made a better bow than a three-foot piece. Hundreds of thousands of these bows were made and used for three hundred years. However, not one is known to survive today. We believe that a force of about one hundred pounds was needed to pull the string all the way back on a long bow. For a long time the bow was just a bent stick and string. In fact, more changes have taken place in a bow in the past 25 years than in the last 7 centuries. Today, bow is forceful. It is as exact as a gun. In addition, it requires little strength to draw the string. Modem bows also have precise aiming devices. In indoor contests, perfect scores from 40 yards are common. The invention of the bows itself ranks with discovery of fire and the wheel. It was a great step forward for man. Because it did not shoot far. Because it did not bend easily. Because it was too heavy. Because its string was short.

April Fools’ Day is a day to play jokes on others. No one knows how this holiday began, but people think it first started in France. In the 16th century, French people celebrated New Year’s Day from March 25 to April 1. In the mid-1560s King Charles IX changed it from March 25 to January 1. But some people still celebrated it on April 1, so others called them April Fools. Each country celebrates April Fools’ Day differently. In France, people call the April Fools “April Fish“. They tape a paper fish to their friends’ backs to fool them. When he or she finds out, they shout “April Fish!“ In England, people play jokes only in the morning. You are a “noodle“ if someone fools you. In Scotland, April Fools’ Day is 48 hours long. They call an April Fool “April Gowk“. Gowk is another name for a cuckoo bird. In America, people play small jokes on their friends and many other people on the first of April. They may point down to your shoe and say, “Your shoelace is untied.“ If you believe them and look down to see, you are an April Fool then. From March 25 to March 30. January 1. From March 25 to April 1. April 1.

There are different ideas about pets in different parts of the world. In most countries, animals have an inferior position to human beings. In some countries, however, people treat their pets like members of their own families, or perhaps better. In the United States and Europe, where pets are very popular, there are special shops that sell jewelry, clothing, and delicious food for cats and dogs. There are shops on fashionable streets in New York City, for example, they sell gold and diamond collars, fur jackets, mittens and hats for pets. In many countries of the world, there is special food for pets. It is common for supermarkets in many places to sell cat food and dog food. However, in France, there is a special restaurant for dogs. Dogs are the only customers. There is seating for twenty of them. On the menu, there is a variety of special tasty dishes for the dogs to choose from. In the United States, there is a very rich cat, who can afford to go to any restaurant he chooses. His name is Kitty Cat. Kitty Cat received one hundred thousand dollars when his owner died. In addition, the owner left Kitty Cat a beautiful house to live in. There is a person who comes to the house every day to feed and take care of Kitty Cat. Of course, in most parts of the world, pets don’t live in such wealth and luxury. There is a more practical and functional attitude toward pets. People own cats and dogs because they keep away mice and other unwanted animals. Certainly, owners generally have some affectionate feeling for their pets. However, they do not see them as equal to family members. In most places in the world, there isn’t any special clothing, or jewelry, or gourmet food for these animals. There aren’t any special restaurants for the dogs. There are no rich cats who live in large and beautiful houses. Pets around the world live in a great variety of ways, just as people do. Shops that sell cats and dogs. Shops that sell jewelry, clothing and food for pets. Shops that provide medical treatment for pets. Shops that take care of cats and dogs.

Most worthwhile careers require some kind of specialized training. Ideally, therefore, the choice of an【C1】______should be made even before choice of a curriculum in high school. Actually,【C2】______, most people make several job choices during their working lives,【C3】______because of economic and industrial changes and partly to improve their position. The “one perfect job“ does not【C4】______. Young people should【C5】______enters into a broad flexible training program that will【C6】______them for a field of work rather than for a single【C7】______. Unfortunately many young people have to make career plans【C8】______benefit of help from a(n)【C9】______vocational counselor or psychologist. Knowing【C10】______about the occupational world, or themselves for that matter, they choose their lifework on a hit-or-miss basis. Some【C11】______from job to job. Others【C12】______to work in which they are unhappy and for which they are not fitted. One common mistake is choosing an occupation for【C13】______real or imagined prestige. Too many high school students--or their parents for them--choose the professional field,【C14】______both the relatively small proportion of workers in the professions and the extremely high educational and personal【C15】______.The imagined or real prestige of a profession or a white-collar job is no good【C16】______for choosing it as life’s work.【C17】______, these occupations are not always well paid, since a large【C18】______of jobs are in mechanical and manual work, the【C19】______of young people should give serious【C20】______to these fields.

In the United States, women are paid ______________ (比做同样工作的男人低大约20%).

When I returned home, I found____________(房间被翻得乱七八糟).

Students______ business administration must take at least one course in statistics. participating in joining in choosing to majoring in

The audience were deeply ______ by her excellent performance. compressed oppressed impressed depressed

The snow has been ______ steadily for hours and the ground is completely covered. showering dropping descending falling

As English Spreads, Indonesians Fear for Their Language Paulina Sugiarto’s three children played together at a mall here the other day, chattering not in Indonesia’s national language, but English. Their fluency often draws admiring questions from other Indonesian parents Ms. Sugiarto encounters in this city’s upscale malls. But the children’s ability in English obscured the fact that, though born and raised in Indonesia, they were struggling with the Indonesian language, known as Bahasa Indonesia. Their parents, who grew up speaking the Indonesian language but went to college in the United States and Australia, talk to their children in English. And the children attend a private school where English is the main language of instruction. “They know they’re Indonesian,“ Ms. Sugiarto, 34, said. “They love Indonesia. They just can’t speak Bahasa Indonesia. It’s tragic.“ Indonesia’s linguistic legacy is increasingly under threat as growing numbers of wealthy and upper-middle-class families shun (避开) public schools where Indonesian remains the main language but English is often taught poorly. They are turning, instead, to private schools that focus on English and devote little time, if any, to Indonesian. For some Indonesians, as mastery of English has become increasingly tied to social standing, Indonesian has been relegated to second-class status. In extreme cases, people take pride in speaking Indonesian poorly. The global spread of English, with its sometimes corrosive (逐渐破坏的) effects on local languages, has caused much hand-wringing (焦虑) in many non-English-speaking corners of the world. But the implications may be more far-reaching in Indonesia, where generations of political leaders promoted Indonesian to unite the nation and forge a national identity out of countless ethnic groups, ancient cultures and disparate dialects. The government recently announced that it would require all private schools to teach the nation’s official language to its Indonesian students by 2013. Details remain sketchy, though. “These schools operate here, but don’t offer Bahasa to our citizens,“ said Suyanto, who oversees primary and secondary education at the Education Ministry. “If we don’t regulate them, in the long run this could be dangerous for the continuity of our language,“ said Mr. Suyanto, who like many Indonesians uses one name. “If this big country doesn’t have a strong language to unite it, it could be dangerous.“ The seemingly reflexive preference for English has begun to attract criticism in the popular culture. Last year, a woman, whose father is Indonesian and her mother American, was crowned Miss Indonesia despite her poor command of Indonesian， The judges were later condemned in the news media and in the blogs for being impressed by her English fluency and for disregarding the fact that, despite growing up here, she needed interpreters to translate the judges’ questions. In 1928, nationalists seeking independence from Dutch rule chose Indonesian, a form of Malay, as the language of civic unity. While a small percentage of educated Indonesians spoke Dutch, Indonesian became the preferred language of intellectuals. Each language had a social rank, said Arief Rachman, an education expert. “If you spoke Javanese, you were below,“ he said, referring to the main language on the island of Java. “If you spoke Indonesian, you were a bit above. If you spoke Dutch, you were at the top.“ Leaders, especially Suharto, the general who ruled Indonesia until 1998, enforced teaching of Indonesian and curbed use of English. “During the Suharto era, Bahasa Indonesia was the only language that we could see or read. English was at the bottom of the rank,“ said Aimee Dawis, who teaches communications at Universitas Indonesia. “It was used to create a national identity, and it worked, because all of us spoke Bahasa Indonesia. Now the dilution (淡化) of Bahasa Indonesia is not the result of a deliberate government policy. It’s just occurring naturally.“ With Indonesia’s democratization (民主化) in the past decade, experts say, English became the new Dutch. Regulations were loosened, allowing Indonesian children to attend private schools that did not follow the national curriculum, but offered English. The more expensive ones, with tuition costing several thousand dollars a year, usually employ native speakers of English, said Elena Racho, vice chairwoman of the Association of National Plus Schools, an umbrella organization for private schools. But with the popularity of private schools booming, hundreds have opened in recent years, Ms. Racho said. The less expensive ones, unable to hire foreigners, are often staffed with Indonesians teaching all subjects in English, if often imperfect English, she added. Many children attending those schools end up speaking Indonesian poorly, experts said. Uchu Riza — who owns a private school that teaches both languages — said some Indonesians were willing to sacrifice Indonesian for a language with perceived higher status. “Sometimes they look down on people who don’t speak English,“ she said. She added: “In some families, the grandchildren cannot speak with the grandmother because they don’t speak Bahasa Indonesia. That’s sad.“ Anna Surti Ariani, a psychologist who provides counseling at private schools and in her own practice, said some parents even displayed “a negative pride“ that their children spoke poor Indonesian. Schools typically advise the parents to speak to their children in English at home even though the parents may be far from fluent in the language. “Sometimes the parents even ask the baby sitters not to speak in Indonesian but in English,“ Ms. Ariani said. It is a sight often seen in this city’s malls on weekends: Indonesian parents addressing their children in sometimes halting English, followed by nannies using what English words they know. But Delia Raymena Jovanka, 30, a mother of two preschoolers, has developed misgivings (担忧). Her son Fathiy, 4, attended an English play group and was enrolled in a kindergarten focusing on English; Ms. Jovanka allowed him to watch only English TV programs. The result was that her son responded to his parents only in English and had difficulties with Indonesian. Ms. Jovanka was considering sending her son to a regular public school next year. But friends and relatives were pressing her to choose a private school so that her son could become fluent in English. Asked whether she would rather have her son become fluent in English or Indonesian, Ms. Jovanka said, “To be honest, English. But this can become a big problem in his socialization. He’s Indonesian. He lives in Indonesia. If he can’t communicate with people, it’ll be a big problem.“

There were three different kinds of【B1】______guides. One kind, a tourist【B2】______, might meet tourists at the airport. He might also help them get hotel【B3】______or help them【B4】______what they will be able to see or do. The assistant must therefore know about local events, where【B5】______hotels are, and the prices of everything. The second kind of guide takes tourists on tours of the city and【B6】______areas. This kind of guide meets tourists in【B7】______, takes them on buses to see the local sights and places of interest, and tells them about local history and【B8】______. The third kind of guide takes groups of people on buses to faraway cities or even to different countries.【B9】______.Usually only single men serve as guides for these tours.【B10】______. And they must be able to assist tourists with their heavy luggage.【B11】______.

Lance Armstrong is thirty-three years old and is one of the best athletes in the world. Scientists say his body operates better than the【S1】______person. For example, his heart can【S2】______more than two hundred times a minute. It pumps an extremely large amount of blood and oxygen to his legs. Edward Coyle, head of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Texas in Aus tin, tested Armstrong five times from 1992 until 1995. Each time, the cyclist rode a【S3】______bike for twenty-five minutes with the work rate increasing every five minutes. Scientists measured Armstrong’ s【S4】______against the amount of oxygen he breathed. Doctor Coyle discovered an 8% increase in Armstrong’s muscle power. Doctor Coyle【S5】______Armstrong might have developed more of a certain kind of muscle during his seven years of training. Doctor Coyle also discovered that Armstrong was able to reduce his body weight and body fat before his Tour de France victories. This enabled him to increase his power in relation to his body weight by 18%. Doctor Coyle says the results of the【S6】______show that long-term training has more of an effect on athletes than scientists thought. Lance Armstrong is【S7】______in another way. In 1996, when he was twenty-five, he discovered he had cancer of the testicles(睾丸), which had spread to his lungs and brain. Armstrong received chemical【S8】______and several operations on his brain. After he【S9】______, he began training a gain in 1998. The next year he won his first Tour de France race. Many people who have【S10】______and are living with cancer believe he is a hero. A)bite I)performance B)study J)recovered C)average K)fixed D)suspected L)departed E)exercise M)frequent F)beat N)treatment G)unique O)breakthrough H)survived

The author’s main purpose to write this article is ______.

Which of the following is NOT true?

More than 40 percent of the poor people are children. This is mainly because ______.

Most of the American poor people are not qualified for employment because ______.

We may conclude from the passage that ______.