Abstract

2002

Use of English : It shows the process of the communication revolution which influences our daily lifes a lot.

Reading Comprehension

Text 1 : To make your humor work, you should identify shared experiences and show the audience that you are one of them.

Text 2 : Robots help to remove much human labor in modern times and the next stage is to respond independently to a changing world.

Text 3 : In the past, oil shocks resulted in inflation and global economic decline. But this time the ecomomic consequence is less severe and people should be optimistic.

Text 4 : Physician-assisted suicide is still illegal but the medical priciple of “double effect” is supported: if a high dose of a medication can reduce the dying patient’s pain but will eventually kill the patient, the physician can prescribe it. As long as the physician use it for medical purpose, he/she has done nothing illegal.

2003

Use of English : Teenagers have been experiencing the emotional, intellectual and physical changes. And teachers need to give serious thoughts to how students can best accommodate such changes.

Reading Comprehension

Text 1 : The emergence of the Net has remolded the intelligence services. It has given birth to a whole industry of point-and-click spying, the so-called “open-source intelligence”.

Text 2 : Animal rights misinformation confuses the public and threatens advances in health care. Scientists must communicate more with the public and make clear the connection between animal research and health care.

Text 3 : It talks about the monopoly on the rail industry, as well as the resulting rate discrimination against captive shippers. These shippers also worry about a round of huge rate increase because of the continuing acquisition.

Text 4 : Americans treat death as a problem to be solved, which is costly and unsustainable for the society, as well as ineffective and painful for the patients. Instead, the nation should fund more research on humbler therapies that could improve people’s lives.

2004

Use of English : It discussed the causes of juvenile delinquency. While many theories have focused either on the individual or on society, this article pointed out that changes in the social and family structures might indirectly affect juvenile crime rates.

Reading Comprehension

Text 1 : It introduced a kind of search agent on career-related sites. A visitor just keys in his job criteria and the agent will e-mail him when a matching position is posted on the site. The agent also helps the employed to “keep their eyes open”.

Text 2 : Alphabetism is an insidious form of descrimination that continues to thrive. In many occasions, the list of speakers is drawn up alphabetically – sorted by the first letter of their surnames – and the audience will lose interest by the time they reach the second half.

Text 3 : The slowing economy slightly affects people’s lives. And the public remain optimistic about the its long-term prospects.

Text 4 : Intellect is undervalued in both the society and the schools. They pay more attention to praciticality, common sense and natve intelligence, instead of intellect. While practical is more important in the society, schools should be a counterbanlance.

Part B : It talks about the relation of language to mind. Whorf developed the idea that the structure of language determines the structure of habitual thought in a society.

2005

Use of English : It talks about sensitivity, of the human nose, to smells.

Reading Comprehension

Text 1 : A Research suggests that resenting unfairness is capuchin monkeys’ nature. Capuchins are co-operative, group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated.

Text 2 : There’s definitely a growing threat of global warming. To protect the atmosphere, we should take actions as well as press forward on scientific research.

Text 3 : Present research shows that dreams help to work through negative feelings generated during the day. And a leading authority suggests that the process can be brought under conscious control with special exercise.

The Word. Some area of the brain is especially active when most vivid dreams occur, suggesting that there maybe a link between dreams and this specific area. (In this case, it is the limbic system that represents the “emotional brain”).

Text 4 : The gradual disappearance of Formal English is natural and inevitable during language development. Mr. McWhorter is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful.

2006

Use of English : The number of homeless is increasing and the government shall help them toward independence: low-cost housing, survival skills, mental treatment and so on.

Reading Comprehension

Text 1 : The American society has a great power for homogenizing people. And the immigration is successful according to three indices of assimilation: language, home ownership and intermarriage.

Forces. Shopping, mass media, advertizing and sports are the forces for homogination. They influence people’s daily life.

Text 3 : Large sea animals are in danger of extinction. Researchers suggest that biomass of large predators is reduced by 80% in a new fishery and by 90% in a long-fished area.

Method. They examine half a century of data and get the changes in catch sizes and, by that, estimate the changes in biomass.

Text 4 : Anti-happy art functions as a reminder of misery to save people from the illusion of easy happiness created by the mass media.

Part B : Gambling make people have serious mental problems – personality disorders. They pursue the thrill from gambling and are helplessly addicted to it. However, the government is addicted to the venenues from casinos, thus supports this industry.

Lure. Casinos attract people with coupons and mailings, and then maintain clients by the FUN card which earns poits for meals and drinks. As time goes by, people are addicted and can not control their behavior.

Part C : Intellectuals today have become anti-intellectual themselves. They shall think in a Socratic way: first ask factual questions, then ask moral questions, finally suggest actions. But this excludes the average scientist, the majority of teachers and scolars — they may do well in the first step but stop there. They take the everyday marol code for granted rather than living in public and illustrious thought.