Section I Use of English
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D
on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
Being a good parent is, of course, what every parent would like to be. But defining what it
means to be a good parent is undoubtedly very 1 , particularly since children respond differently
to the same style of parenting. A calm, rule-following child might respond better to a different sort
of parenting than, 2 , a younger sibling.
3 , There’s another sort of parent that s a bit easier to 4 : a patient parent. Children of every
age benefit from patient parenting. Still, 5 every parent would like to be patient, this is no easy 6.
Sometimes parents get exhausted and frustrated and are unable to maintain a 7 and composed style
with their kids. I understand this.
You’re only human, and sometimes your kids can 8 you just a little too far. And then the 9
happens: You lose your patience and either scream at your kids or say something that was a bit too
10 and does nobody any good. You wish that you could 11 the clock and start over, We’ve all been
there:
12, even though it’s common, it’s important to keep in mind that in a single moment of
fatigue. you can say something to your child that you may 13 for a long time. This may not only
do damage t0 your relationship with. your child but also 14 your child’s self-esteem.
If you consistently lose your 15 with your kids. then you are inadvertently modeling a lack of
emotional control for your kids. We are all becoming increasingly aware of the 16 of modeling
tolerance and patience for the younger generation. This is a skill that will help them all throughout
life. In fact, the ability to emotionally regulate or maintain emotional control when 17 by stress is
one of the most important of all life’s skills
Certainly, it’s incredibly 18 to maintain patience at all times with your children. A more
practical goal is to try, to the best of your ability, to be as tolerant and composed as you can when
faced with 19 situations involving your children. I can promise you this: As a result of working
toward this goal. you and your children will benefit and 20 from stressful moments feeling better
physically and emotionally.
1. [A] tedious [B] pleasant [C] instructive [D] tricky
2. [A] in addition [B] for example [C] at once [D] by accident
3. [A] fortunately [B] occasionally [C] accordingly [D] eventually
4. [A] amuse [B] assist [C] describe [D] train
5. [A] while [B] because [C] unless [D] once
6. [A] answer [B] task [C] choice [D] access
7. [A] tolerant [B] formal [C] rigid [D] critical
8. [A] move [B] drag [C] push [D] send
9. [A] mysterious [B] illogical [C] suspicious [D] inevitable
10. [A] boring [B] naive [C] harsh [D] vague
11. [A] turn back [B] take apart [C] set aside [D] cover up
12. [A] overall [B] instead [C] however [D] otherwise
13. [A] like [B] miss [C] believe [D] regret
14. [A] raise [B] affect [C] justify [D] reflect
15. [A] time [B] bond [C] race [D] cool
16. [A] nature [B] secret [C] importance [D] context
17.[A] cheated [B] defeated [C] confused [D] confronted
18. [A] terrible [B] hard [C] strange [D] wrong
19. [A] trying [B] changing [C] exciting [D] surprising
20.[A] hide [B] emerge [C] withdraw [D] escape
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B,C or
D.Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(40 points)
Text 1
Rats and other animals need to be highly at tuned to social signals from others so that can
identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid. To find out if this extends to non-living
beings, Loleh Quinn at the University of California, San Diego, and her colleagues tested whether
rats can detect social signals from robotic rats.
They housed eight adult rats with two types of robotic rat—one social and one asocial—for 5
our days. The robots rats were quite minimalist, resembling a chunkier version of a computer
mouse with wheels-to move around and colorful markings.
During the experiment, the social robot rat followed the living rats around, played with the
same toys, and opened caged doors to let trapped rats escape. Meanwhile, the asocial robot simply
moved forwards and backwards and side to side
Next, the researchers trapped the robots in cages and gave the rats the opportunity to release
them by pressing a lever.
Across 18 trials each, the living rats were 52 percent more likely on average to set the social
robot free than the asocial one. This suggests that the rats perceived the social robot as a genuine
social being. They may have bonded more with the social robot because it displayed behaviours
like communal exploring and playing. This could lead to the rats better remembering having freed
it earlier, and wanting the robot to return the favour when they get trapped, says Quinn.
The readiness of the rats to befriend the social robot was surprising given its minimal design.
The robot was the same size as a regular rat but resembled a simple plastic box on wheels.“We’d
assumed we’d have to give it a moving head and tail, facial features, and put a scene on it to make
it smell like a real rat, but that wasn’t necessary," says Janet Wiles at the University of Queensland
in Australia, who helped with the research.
The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social cues, even when they come from basic
robots. Similarly, children tend to treat robots as if they are fellow beings, even when they display
only simple social signals.“ We humans seem to be fascinated by robots, and it turns out other
animals are too,”says Wiles.
21. Quinn and her colleagues conducted a test to see if rats can .
[A] pickup social signals from non-living rats
[B] distinguish a friendly rat from a hostile one
[C] attain sociable traits through special training
[D] send out warming messages to their fellow
22. What did the social robot do during the experiment?
[A] It followed the social robot.
[B] It played with some toys.
[C] It set the trapped Tats free.
[D]It moved around alone.
23. According to Quinn, the rats released the social robot because they .
[A] tried to practice a means of escape
[B] expected it to do the same in return
[C] wanted to display their intelligence
[D]considered that an interesting game
24. James Wiles notes that rats .
[A]can remember other rat’s facial features
[B] differentiate smells better than sizes
[C] respond more to cations than to looks
[D]can be scared by a plastic box on wheels
25. It can be learned from the text that rats .
[A]appear to be adaptable to new surroundings
(B] are more socially active than other animals
[C] behave differently from children in socializing
[PD]are more sensitive to social cues than expected
Text 2
It is fashionable today to bash Big Business. And there is one issue on which the many critics
agree: CEO pay. We hear that CEOs are paid too much (or too much relative to workers), or that
they rig others’ pay, or that their pay is insufficiently related to positive outcomes. But the more
likely truth is CEO pay is largely caused by intense competition.
It is true that CEO pay has gone up—top ones may make 300 times the pay of typical
workers on average, and since the mid-1970s, CEO pay for large publicly traded American
corporations has, by varying estimates, gone up by about 500%. The typical CEO of a top
American corporation—from the 350 largest such companies—now makes about $18.9 million a
year.
While individual cases of overpayment definitely exist, in general, the determinants of CEO
pay are not so mysterious and not so mired in corruption. In fact, overall CEO compensation for
the top companies rises pretty much. In lockstep with the value of those companies on the stock
market.
The best model for understanding the growth of CEO pay, though, is that of limited CEO
talent in a world where business opportunities for the top firms are growing rapidly. The efforts of
America’s highest-earning 1% have been one of the more dynamic elements of the global
economy. It’s not popular to say, but one reason their pay has gone up so much is that CEOs really
have upped their game relative to many other workers in the U.S. economy.
Today’s CEO, at least for major American firms, must have many more skills than simply
being able to “run the company.” CEOs must have a good sense of financial markets and maybe
even how the company should trade in them. They also need better public relations skills than
their predecessors, as the costs of even a minor slipup can be significant. Then there’s the fact that
large American companies are much more globalized than ever before, with supply chains spread
across a larger number of countries. To lead in that system requires knowledge that is fairly
mind-boggling.
There is yet another trend: virtually all major American companies are becoming tech
companies, one way or another. An agribusiness company, for instance, may focus on R&D in
highly IT-intensive areas such as genome sequencing. Similarly, it is hard to do a good job running
the Walt Disney Company just by picking good movie scripts and courting stars; you also need to
build a firm capable of creating significant CGI products for animated movies at the highest levels
of technical sophistication and with many frontier innovations along the way.
On top of all of this, major CEOs still have to do the job they have always done—which
includes motivating employees, serving as an internal role model, helping to define and extend a
corporate culture, understanding the internal accounting, and presenting budgets and business
plans to the board. Good CEOs are some of the world’s most potent creators and have some of the
very deepest skills of understanding.
26. which of the following has contributed to CEO pay rise?
A. The growth in the number of cooperations
B. The general pay rise with a better economy
C. Increased business opportunities for top firms
D. Close cooperation among leading economics
27. Compared with their predecessors, today’s CEOs are required to__.
A. foster a stronger sense of teamwork
B. finance more research and development
C. establish closer ties with tech companies
D. operate more globalized companies
28. CEO pay has been rising since the 1970s despite__.
A. continual internal opposition
B. strict corporate governance
C. conservative business strategies
D. repeated governance warnings
29. High CEO pay can be justified by the fact that it helps__.
A. confirm the status of CEOs
B. motive inside candidates
C. boost the efficiency of CEOs
D. increase corporate value
30. The most suitable title for this text would be__.
A. CEOs Are Not Overpaid
B. CEO Pay: Past and Present
C. CEOs’ Challenges of Today
D. CEO Traits: Not Easy to Define
Text 3
Madrid was hailed as a public health beacon last November when it rolled out ambitious
restrictions on the most polluting cars. Seven months and one election day later, a new
conservative city council suspended enforcement of the clean air zone, a first step toward its
possible demise.
Mayor Jose Luis Martínez -Almeida made opposition to the zone a centrepiece of his election
campaign, despite its success in improving air quality. A judge has now overruled the city's
decision to stop levying fines, ordering them reinstated. But with legal battles ahead, the zone's
future looks uncertain at best.
Among other weaknesses, the measures cities must employ when left to tackle dirty air on
their own are politically contentious, and therefore vulnerable. That’s because they inevitably put
the costs of cleaning the air on to individual drivers—who must pay fees or buy better vehicles—
rather than on to the car manufacturers whose cheating is the real cause of our toxic pollution.
It’s not hard to imagine a similar reversal happening in London. The new ultra-low emission
zone (Ulez) is likely to be a big issue in next year's mayoral election. And if Sadiq Khan wins and
extends it to the North and South Circular roads in 2021 as he intends, it is sure to spark intense
opposition from the far larger number of motorists who will then be affected.
It's not that measures such as London’s Ulez are useless. Far from it. Local officials are using
the levers that are available to them to safeguard residents' health in the face of a serious threat.
The zones do deliver some improvements to air quality, and the science tells us that means real
health benefits - fewer heart attacks, stokes and premature births, less cancer, dementia and asthma.
Fewer untimely deaths.
But mayors and councilors can only do so much about a problem that is far bigger than any
one city or town. They are acting because national governments — Britain’s and others across
Europe—have failed to do so.
Restrictions that keep highly polluting cars out of certain areas—city centres,“school streets”,
even individual roads-are a response to the absence of a larger effort to properly enforce existing
regulations and require auto companies to bring their vehicles into compliance. Wales has
introduced special low speed limits to minimise pollution. We re doing everything but insist that
manufacturers clean up their cars.
31. Which of the following is true about Madrid’s clean air zone?
[A] Its effects are questionable
[B] It has been opposed by a judge
[C] It needs tougher enforcement
[D] Its fate is yet to be decided
32. Which is considered a weakness of the city-level measures to tackle dirty air?
[A] They are biased against car manufacturers.
[B] They prove impractical for city councils.
[C] They are deemed too mild for politicians.
[D] They put too much burden on individual motorists.
33. The author believes that the extension of London’s Ulez will .
[A] arouse strong resistance.
[B] ensure Khan’s electoral success.
[C] improve the city’s traffic.
[D] discourage car manufacturing.
34. Who does the author think should have addressed the problem?
[A] Local residents
[B] Mayors.
[C] Councilors.
[D] National governments.
35. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that auto companies .
[A] will raise low-emission car production
[B] should be forced to follow regulations
[C] will upgrade the design of their vehicles
[D] should be put under public supervision
Text 4
Now that members of Generation Z are graduating college this spring—the most
commonly- accepted definition says this generation was born after 1995, give or take a year—the
attention has been rising steadily in recent weeks. GenZs are about to hit the streets looking for
work in a labor market that’s tighter than its been in decades. And employers are planning on
hiring about 17 percent more new graduates for jobs in the U.S. this year than last, according to a
survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Everybody wants to
know how the people who will soon inhabit those empty office cubicles will differ from those who
came before them.
If “entitled” is the most common adjective, fairly or not, applied to millennials (those born
between 1981 and 1995), the catchwords for Generation Z are practical and cautious. According to
the career counselors and experts who study them, Generation Zs are clear-eyed, economic
pragmatists. Despite graduating into the best economy in the past 50 years, Gen Zs know what an
economic train wreck looks like. They were impressionable kids during the crash of 2008, when
many of their parents lost their jobs or their life savings or both. They aren’t interested in taking
any chances. The booming economy seems to have done little to assuage this underlying
generational sense of anxious urgency, especially for those who have college debt. College loan
balances in the U.S. now stand at a record $1.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve.
One survey from Accenture found that 88 percent of graduating seniors this year chose their
major with a job in mind. In a 2019 survey of University of Georgia students, meanwhile, the
career office found the most desirable trait in a future employer was the ability to offer secure
employment (followed by professional development and training, and then inspiring purpose). Job
security or stability was the second most important career goal (work-life balance was number
one), followed by a sense of being dedicated to a cause or to feel good about serving the greater
good.
36. Generation Zs graduating college this spring________.
[A] are recognized for their abilities
[B] are in favor of job offers
[C] are optimistic about the labor market
[D] are drawing growing public attention
37. Generation Zs are keenly aware________.
[A] what a tough economic situation is like
[B] what their parents expect of them
[C] how they differ from past generations
[D] how valuable a counselor’s advice is
38. The word“assuage”(line 9, para 2) is closet in meaning to________.
[A] define
[B] relieve
[C] maintain
[D] deepen
39. It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that Generation Zs________.
[A] care little about their job performance
[B] give top priority to professional training
[C] think it hard to achieve work-life balance
[D] have a clear idea about their future job
40. Michelsen thinks that compared with millennials, Generation Zs are________.
[A] less realistic
[B] less adventurous
[C]more diligent
[D] more generous
Part B
Directions:
Read the following text and answer the questions by choosing the most suitable subheading from
the list A-G for each numbered paragraphs (41-45). There are two extra subheadings which you do
not need to use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
[A] Give compliments, just not too many.
[B] Put on a good face, always.
[C] Tailor your interactions.
[D] Spend time with everyone.
[E] Reveal, don’t hide information.
[F] Slow down and listen.
[G] Put yourselves in others’ shoes.
Five Ways to Win Over Everyone in the Office
Is it possible to like everyone in your office? Think about how tough it is to get together 15
people, much less 50, who all get along perfectly. But unlike in friendships, you need coworkers.
You work with them every day and you depend on them just as they depend on you. Here are
some ways that you can get the whole office on your side.
41.__________
If you have a bone to pick with someone in your workplace, you may try stay tight-lipped
around them. But you won’t be helping either one of you. A Harvard Business School study found
that observers consistently rated those who were frank about themselves more highly, while those
who hid lost trustworthiness. The lesson is not that you should make your personal life an open
book, but rather, when given the option to offer up details about yourself or painstakingly conceal
them, you should just be honest.
42.__________
Just as important as being honest about yourself is being receptive to others. We often feel the
need to tell others how we feel, whether it’s a concern about a project, a stray thought, or a
compliment. Those are all valid, but you need to take time to hear out your coworkers, too. In fact,
rushing to get your own ideas out there can cause colleagues to feel you don’t value their opinions.
Do your best to engage coworkers in a genuine, back-and-forth conversation, rather than
prioritizing your own thoughts.
43.__________
It’s common to have a“cubicle mate”or special confidant in a work setting. But in addition
to those trusted coworkers, you should expand your horizons and find out about all the people
around you. Use your lunch and coffee breaks to meet up with colleagues you don’t always see.
Find out about their lives and interests beyond the job. It requires minimal effort and goes a long
way. This will help to grow your internal network, in addition to being a nice break in the work
day.
44.__________
Positive feedback is important for anyone to hear. And you don’t have to be someone’s boss
to tell them they did an exceptional job on a particular project. This will help engender good will
in others. But don’t overdo it or be fake about it. One study found that people responded best to
comments that shifted from negative to positive, possibly because it suggested they had won
somebody over.
45.__________
This one may be a bit more difficult to pull off, but it can go a long way to achieving results.
Remember in dealing with any coworker what they appreciate from an interaction. Watch out for
how they verbalize with others. Some people like small talk in a meeting before digging into
important matters, while other are more straightforward. Jokes that work one person won’t
necessarily land with another. So, adapt your style accordingly to type. Consider the person that
you’re dealing with in advance and what will get you to your desired outcome.
Section III Translation
Directions:
Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation neatly on the ANSWER SHEET.
(15 points)
It’s almost impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure. People
who do so probably live so cautiously that they go nowhere. Put simply, they're not really living at
all. But, the wonderful thing about failure is that it's entirely up to us to decide how to look at it.
We can choose to see failure as “the end of the world,” or as proof of just how inadequate we
are. Or, we can look at failure as the incredible learning experience that it often is. Every time we
fail at something. we can choose to look for the lesson we’re meant to learn. These lessons are
very important, they’re how we grow, and how we keep from making that same mistake again.
Failures stop us only if we let them.
Failure can also teach us things about ourselves that we would never have learned otherwise.
For instance, failure can help you discover how strong a person you are. Failing at something can
help you discover your truest friends, or help you find unexpected motivation to succeed.
Section IV Writing
Part A
46. Directions:
Suppose you are planning a tour of a historical site for a group of international students.
Write an email to
1) tell them about the site, and
2) give them some tips for the tour
Please write your answer on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name, use “Li Ming”instead. (10 points)
Part B
47.Directions:
Write an essay based on the chart below. In your writing, you should
1) interpret the chart, and
2) give your comments
You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)