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Section I Use of English
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) from each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
In the late 1960’s, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely criticized. Ecologists pointing __1___ that a cluster of tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot __2__.
Skyscrapers are also enormous ___3__ , and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year, the addition__4___17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the __5__ daily demand for electricity by 120,000 kilowatts—enough to__6___ the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscraper can be especially___7__. The heat loss (or gain) through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times __8__ through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain __9___heating and air-conditioning equipment, __10___ of skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses ___11__ with silver or gold mirror films that reduce__12___ as well as heat gain. However, ___13__ skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and __14____ neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put severe pressure on a city’s sanitation __15____, too. If fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate 2. 25 million gallons of raw sewage each year—as __16____ as a city the size of Stamford, Connecticut, which has a ___17___ of more than 109,000. Skyscrapers also ___18___ with television reception, block bird flyways, and obstruct air traffic.
Still, people __19___ to build skyscrapers for all the reasons that they have always built them—personal ambition and the ___20___ of owners to have the largest possible amount of rentable space.
1. A. at B. to C. out D. towards
2. A. power B. capacities C. potentials D. capabilities
3. A. savers B. consumers C. losers D. spenders
4. A. of B. in C. to D. at
5. A. point B. top C. summit D. peak
6. A. distribute B. give C. supply D. donate
7. A. thrifty B. economic C. prosperous D. wasteful
8. A. that B. those C. which D. when
9. A. to B. between C. on D. both
10. A. founders B. consumers C. builders D. suppliers
11. A. coated B. filled C. powdered D. stained
12. A. brightness B. light C. glare D. gaze
13. A. glass-walled B. plastic-walled C. concrete-walled D. mirror-walled
14. A. affect B. assist C. protect D. benefit
15. A. decorations B. utensils C. facilities D. appliances
16. A. more B. much C. few D. little
17. A. population B. people C. mankind D. race
18. A. intervene B. interfere C. interrupt D. obstacle
19. A. stop B. pause C. continue D. terminate
20. A. wish B. desire C. Secret D. promise
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
There are 4 passages in this part .Each of the passages is followed by 5 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET。(40points)
Text 1
The annual review of American company board practices by Korn/Ferry, a firm of headhunters, is a useful indicator of the health of corporate governance. This year's review, published on November 12th, shows that the Sarbanes-Oxley act, passed in 2002 to try to prevent a repeat of corporate collapses such as Enron's and World Com's, has had an impact on the boardroom--albeit at an average implementation cost that Korn/Ferry estimates at $5.1m per firm.
Two years ago, only 41% of American firms said they regularly held meetings of directors without their chief executive present; this year the figure was 93%. But some things have been surprisingly unaffected by the backlash against corporate scandals. For example, despite a growing feeling that former chief executives should not sit on their company's board, the percentage of American firms where they do has actually edged up, from 23% in 2003 to 25% in 2004.
Also, disappointingly few firms have split the jobs of chairman and chief executive. Another survey of American boards published this week, by A.T. Kearney, a firm of consultants, found that in 2002 14% of the boards of S&P 500 firms had separated the roles, and a further 16% said they planned to do so. But by 2004 only 23% overall had taken the plunge. A survey earlier in the year by consultants at McKinsey found that 70% of American directors and investors supported the idea of splitting the jobs, which is standard practice in Europe.
Another disappointment is the slow progress in abolishing "staggered" boards--ones where only one-third of the directors are up for re-election each year, to three-year terms. Invented as a defence against takeover, such boards, according to a new Harvard Law School study by Lucian Bebchuk and Alma Cohen, are unambiguously "associated with an economically significant reduction in firm value".
Despite this, the percentage of S&P 500 firms with staggered boards has fallen only slightly--from 63% in 2001 to 60% in 2003, according to the Investor Responsibility Research Centre.
And many of those firms that have been forced by shareholders to abolish the system are doing so only slowly. Merck, a pharmaceutical company in trouble over the possible side-effects of its arthritis drug Vioxx, is allowing its directors to run their full term before introducing a system in which they are all re-elected (or otherwise) annually. Other companies' staggered boards are entrenched in their corporate charters, which cannot be amended by a shareholders' vote. Anyone who expected the scandals of 2001 to bring about rapid change in the balance of power between managers and owners was, at best, naive.
21. The Sarbanes-Oxley act is most probably about_________.
[A] corporate scandal
[B] corporate management
[C] corporate cost
[D] corporate governance
22. The word “backlash” (Line 3, Paragraph 2) most probably means_________.
[A] a violent force
[B] a strong impetus
[C] a firm measure
[D] a strong negative reaction
23. According to the text, separating the roles between chairman and chief executive is________.
[A] a common practice in American companies
[B] what many European companies do
[C] a must to keep the health of a company
[D] not a popular idea among American entrepreneurs
24. We learn from the text that a "staggered" board________.
[A] is adverse to the increment of firm value
[B] gives its board members too much power
[C] has been abolished by most American companies
[D] can be voted down by shareholders
25. Toward the board practice of American companies, the writer’s attitude can be said to be________.
[A] biased
[B] pessimistic
[C] objective
[D] critical
Text 2
Focus on what you do best. This age-old strategy has worked well for RealNetworks, Microsoft's main competitor in multimedia software for the Internet. Now, the smaller Seattle-based firm is trying a novel way to contain the software giant. On October 29th, it released the underlying recipe, or source-code, of its RealPlayer software and will soon do the same for its other programs--giving away a big chunk of its intellectual property.
This may sound like a desperate echo of 1998, when Netscape, struggling in Microsoft's chokehold, published the source-code of its web browser (an initiative that yielded few real results until this June, when the first serious new version of the open-source browser, Mozilla, was released). Yet RealNetworks is not playing defence. It is trying to encourage the creation of a common multimedia software infrastructure for every kind of file format and device, thus thwarting Microsoft's ambitions in this promising market.
The firm hopes that others in the industry (volunteer programmers, media firms and hardware
makers) will take the code, called Helix DNA, improve it and make it run on new devices, such as mobile phones and home stereos, turning RealNetworks' software into an industry standard.Clever licensing terms are supposed to ensure that this standard does not splinter and that the firm still makes money.
Individual developers, universities and other non-profit organisations can modify the software as they please, and even redistribute it for free, so long as they also publish the source-code for their changes. This is a sort of payment in kind, for RealNetworks is then allowed to use these contributions. Firms, on the other hand, must pay royalty fees if they distribute more than 1m copies of the code. They also have to make sure that their software works with other Helix DNA products. The software's development community already has 2,000 members. And several hardware makers back the effort. But there are risks. Afraid of piracy, media groups are suspicious of anything that might be related to hackers (although they also do not want to depend on, and pay for, technology controlled by Microsoft). The self-created competition could also hurt RealNetworks if customers decide its commercial products, which will be based on the open source-code but with extra features, are not worth paying extra for.
RealNetworks' move is another sign that the software industry is going hybrid. Mixing elements of proprietary software, where the source-code is tightly controlled, with open-source programs enables firms to expand a market, harvest the ideas of others and, they hope, still make money. Even Microsoft is edging this way: it recently announced that partners can now look at--but not modify or re-use--the source-code for Passport, its controversial digital-identity service.
26. What is the RealNetworks’ new way of stopping Microsoft?
[A]By selling its intellectual property.
[B]By doing what it is good at.
[C]By releasing the free source-code.
[D]By severe competition with Microsoft.
27. Which of the following can be a disadvantage of releasing the source-code?
[A]It can bring about self-created competition.
[B]It can defeat Microsoft’s ambitions in this market.
[C]It can use the improved software.
[D]It can get royalty fees from some firms.
28. The expression “a desperate echo”(Line 1, Paragraph 2) most probably means________.
[A]a useless repetition
[B]a poor resemblance
[C]a shabby product
[D]a dangerous copy
29. What does the move of RealNetworks suggest?
[A]Microsoft fails to control the software market.
[B]Software market is becoming a mixed market.
[C]RealNetworks wants to make more money.
[D]Software market is not fixed and stable.
30. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A]Netscape had a sheer failure for its publishing the source-code.
[B]RealNetworks wants to occupy the source-code market.
[C]RealNetworks wants to make profits by releasing the free source-code.
[D]Microsoft has to change its managing strategy.
Text 3
Thanks to slumping markets, investment banks are shedding many of their highly-paid traders. When markets recover, the banks might be tempted to replace them with rather cheaper talent. One alternative has been around for a while but has yet to catch on: autonomous trading agents-computers programmed to act like the human version without such pesky costs as holidays, lunch breaks or bonuses. Program trading has, of course, been done before; some blamed the 1987 stockmarket crash on computers instructed with simple decision-making rules. But robots can be smarter than that.
Dave Cliff, a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol, England, has been creating trading robots for seven years. In computer simulations he lets them evolve "genetically", and so allows them to adapt and fit models of real-world financial markets. His experiments have suggested that a redesign of some markets could lead to greater efficiency. Last year, a research group at IBM showed that Mr Cliff's artificial traders could consistently beat the human variety, in various kinds of market. Nearly all take the shape of an auction. One well-known type is the English auction, familiar to patrons of the salesrooms of Christie's and Sotheby's, where sellers keep mum on their offer price, and buyers increase their bids by stages until only one remains.
At the other extreme is the Dutch auction, familiar to 17th-century tulip-traders in the Netherlands as well as to bidders for American Treasury bonds. Here, buyers remain silent, and a seller reduces his price until it is accepted. Most markets for shares, commodities, foreign exchange and derivatives are a hybrid of these two types: buyers and sellers can announce their bid or offer prices at any time, and deals are constantly being closed, a so-called "continuous double auction".
Mr Cliff's novel idea was to apply his evolutionary computer programs to marketplaces themselves. Why not, he thought, try and see what types of auction would let traders converge most quickly towards an equilibrium price? The results were surprising. In his models, auctions that let buyers and sellers bid at any time like most of today's financial exchanges were less efficient than ones that required relatively more bids from either buyers or sellers. These "evolved auctions" also withstood big market shocks, such as crashes and panics, better than today's real-world versions. Mr Cliff's most recent results, which will be presented in Sydney, Australia, on December 10th, show that the best type of auction for any market depends crucially on even slight differences in the number of buyers and sellers.
Bank of America has been investigating these new auctions, along with robotic traders, for possible use in electronic exchanges. The hope is that today's financial auctions and online marketplaces might work better by becoming more like their English and Dutch forebears. But what to call such multi-ethnic hybrids? Here's introducing the "Cliffhanger".
31. The passage is mainly__________.
[A] a review of two kinds of auctions
[B] an introduction of trading robots
[C] a survey of the trading market
[D] about trading alternatives
32. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] David’s robot traders have now been used in real-world markets.
[B] Robot traders can evolve like creatures.
[C] There is room for improvement in efficiency in trading markets.
[D] The English auction is the most popular trading form.
33. If you were trading American Treasury bonds, you would most likely take the trading form of ___________.
[A] the English auction
[B] the continuous double auction
[C] the Dutch auction
[D] the evolved auction
34. We can infer from the text that______________.
[A] existing auctions can not withstand market shocks
[B] the Dutch auction is better than the continuous double auction
[C] it’s hard for traders to reach an equilibrium price
[D] the best type of auction takes place when the number of the buyers is equal to that of sellers
35. Toward robot traders, the writer’s attitude can be said to be__________.
[A] biased
[B] objective
[C] pessimistic
[D] optimistic
Text 4
Charlie Bell became chief executive of McDonald’s in April. Within a month doctors told him that he had colorectal cancer. After stockmarket hours on November 22nd, the fast-food firm said he had resigned; it would need a third boss in under a year. Yet when the market opened, its share price barely dipped then edged higher. After all, McDonald’s had, again, shown how to act swiftly and decisively in appointing a new boss.
Mr Bell himself got the top job when Jim Cantalupo died of a heart attack hours before he was due to address a convention of McDonald’s franchisees. Mr Cantalupo was a McDonald’s veteran brought out of retirement in January 2003 to help remodel the firm after sales began falling because of dirty restaurants, indifferent service and growing concern about junk food. He devised a recovery plan, backed by massive marketing, and promoted Mr Bell to chief operating officer. When Mr Cantalupo died, a rapidly convened board confirmed Mr Bell, a 44-year-old Australian already widely seen as his heir apparent, in the top job. The convention got its promised chief executive’s address, from the firm’s first non-American leader.
Yet within weeks executives had to think about what to do if Mr Bell became too ill to continue. Perhaps Mr Bell had the same thing on his mind: he usually introduced Jim Skinner, the 60-year-old vice-chairman, to visitors as the "steady hand at the wheel". Now Mr Skinner (pictured), an expert on the firm’s overseas operations, becomes chief executive, and Mike Roberts, head of its American operations, joins the board as chief operating officer.
Is Mr Roberts now the new heir apparent? Maybe. McDonald’s has brought in supposedly healthier choices such as salads and toasted sandwiches worldwide and, instead of relying for most of its growth on opening new restaurants, has turned to upgrading its 31,000 existing ones. America has done best at this; under Mr Roberts, like-for-like sales there were up by 7.5% in October oon a year earlier.
The new team’s task is to keep the revitalisation plan on course, especially overseas, where some American brands are said to face political hostility from consumers. This is a big challenge. Is an in-house succession the best way to tackle it? Mr Skinner and Mr Roberts are both company veterans, having joined in the 1970s. Some recent academic studies find that the planned succession of a new boss groomed from within, such as Mr Bell and now (arguably) Mr Roberts, produces better results than looking hastily, or outside, for one. McDonald’s smooth handling of its serial misfortunes at the top certainly seems to prove the point. Even so, everyone at McDonald’s must be hoping that it will be a long time before the firm faces yet another such emergency.
36. The main reason for the constant change at the top of McDonald is ________.
[A]. the board’s interference
[B]. the falling sales
[C]. the health problems of the chief executives
[D]. the constant change of its share price
37. Which of the following was NOT a cause of the falling sales of McDonald?
[A]. the change of the chief executive
[B]. people’s concern about junk food
[C]. dirty restaurant
[D]. indifferent service
38. The phrase "heir apparent" (Line 7, Paragraph 2) in the article most probably means____________.
[A]. someone who has the same ideas, aims and style with a person
[B]. someone who has the unalienable right to receive the family title
[C]. someone who is appointed as a heir of a person
[D]. someone who is likely to take over a person’s position when that person leaves
39. In terms of succession at the top, McDonald_________.
[A]. has had to made rather hasty decisions
[B]. prefers to appoint a new boss from within
[C]. acts in a quick and unreasonable way
[D]. surprises all the people with its decisions
40. Toward McDonald’s reaction to emergencies at the top, the writer’s attitude can be said to be___________.
[A]. indifferent
[B]. doubtful
[C]. objective
[D]. praiseful
Part B
Directions:
You are going to read a list of headings and a text. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each numbered paragraph (41-45). The first and last paragraphs of the text are not numbered. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
[A]The software serves the user experience
[B]Product names are really important
[C]The hardware serves the software
[D]The experience is the product
[E]The user experience serves the emotion
[F]The product serves a real need
Recently the Apple iPhone made its debut,and once again they have redefined the industry. But when I talk to people about that product, and Apple in general, I’m struck by how many different opinions there are as to what accounts for their success. I strongly disagree with those that attribute their success to marketing prowess (although I think they’re quite good at marketing). There is a great deal to learn from Apple, but to me there are five higher-order lessons:
41
Unlike virtually every other hardware company, Apple understands that the role of the hardware is to serve the software, and not the other way around. The software needs to know what the user wants the phone to do, so hardware technologies like multi-touch displays, and accelerometer and proximity sensors are invented to enable this. Every technology is there for a purpose. While the hardware and software technology are truly impressive, Apple understands that once you get beyond the early adopters, that’not what people care about.
42
Almost every consumer company out there today gives lip service to the user experience, but Apple means it. Usability, interaction design, visual design, industrial design, are all front and center in the priorities. It may have taken two and a half years to come up with the iPhone, but the team knew that it was all about the user experience, and they knew they had to move mountains to make the experience great. In addition, they have the talent and persistence at all levels of the company to make this happen.
43
If Apple has a secret sauce as a technology company, I believe it’s this: they understand better than anyone else the roe that emotion plays in getting consumers to crave, buy, and love a product. They know how to create products that speak to these emotions in consumers. People are craving the iPhone. $500 for a phone? No problem at all, because consumers are not comparing the iPhone to a Razr or a Treo; it’s in an entirely different league. Take a look around an airport lounge: people treat their PC like a rental car, but they flaunt their MacBook like it’s their dream car. And, if you’re brave enough, just try to take a teen’s iPod away from him.
44
Apple products are rarely first to market, but they always speak to a real, unmet need. There are well over a hundred different cell phones available, but it’s hard to find people that actually love their phone. They get frustrated dealing with voice mail systems that haven’t improved in decades, incompatible address books, unusable web browsers, and e-mail hacks. Apple comes along with a product that speaks directly to these unmet needs.
45
One of Apple’s few competitors in the cell phone handset market is the LG KU990 Viewty. Wait! What sounds better: the “iPhone” or the “KU990 Viewty”, which is easier to remember? So many products are so badly named, and for such bad reasons. Companies should agonize over product names and ban ugly non-word strings of letters and numbers designed to make it easy to categorize products internally. It’s the easiest and cheapest way to improve brand appeal and loyalty. Why do so many companies fail to do it?
It’s amazing to me how few companies get these points. Even the many companies that are just trying to copy, only think to copy the functionality. And don’t copy what’s really important.
Section III Translation
46. Directions:
In this section there is a text in English. Translate it into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)
Winter holidays can be a dangerous time for people who have heart disease. In fact, according to an article citing a study by Ted Ning, Christmas has the highest rate of death caused by heart attack, followed by December 26 and New Year's Eve. Why? "During the holidays, a lot of Americans eat too much and drink more alcohol -- while ditching their exercise routine," said Ning.
A heart attack can start slowly with a clot blocking blood flow to the heart, but as the minutes tick by, the heart muscle is suffering permanent damage. Women are more likely than men to experience vague symptoms such as shortness of breath or back pain. Youth — relatively speaking — is no reason to disregard these symptoms, especially if you're female. Heart attacks are up 32 percent in the last decade among women under the age of 50.
Section IV Writing
Part A
47. Directions:
Your friend’s hometown has been destroyed in the tragic hurricane. Write a letter to
1) comfort him/her and his/her family,
2) express your willingness of support.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use “Zhang Wei” instead. (10 points)
Part B
48. Directions:
The chart below shows the main reasons for study among students of different age groups.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Analyze the causes for the difference described in the graph.
Show your own comment on the point.
You should write at least 150 words.
Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET 2.(15 points)
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