Part I  Cloze (10 Points)
Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Historically, humans get serious about avoiding disasters only after one has just struck them. (1)______ that logic, 2006 should have been a breakthrough year for rational behavior. With the memory of 9/11 still (2)______ in their minds, Americans watched hurricane Katrina, the most expensive disaster in U.S. history, on (3)______ TV. Anyone who didn’t know it before should have learned that bad things can happen. And they are made (4)______ worse by our willful blindness to risk as much as our (5)______ to work together before everything goes to hell. Granted, some amount of delusion is probably part of the (6)______ condition. In A.D. 63, Pompeii was seriously damaged by an earthquake, and the locals immediately went to work (7)______, in the same spot—until they were buried altogether by a volcano eruption 16 years later. But a (8)______ of the past year in disaster history suggests that modern Americans are particularly bad at (9)______ themselves from guaranteed threats. We know more than we (10)______ did about the dangers we face. But it turns (11)______ that in times of crisis, our greatest enemy is (12)______ the storm, the quake or the (13)______ itself. More often, it is ourselves. So what has happened in the year that (14)______ the disaster on the Gulf Coast? In New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers has worked day and night to rebuild the flood walls. They have got the walls to (15)______ they were before Katrina, more or less. That’s not (16)______, we can now say with confidence. But it may be all (17)______ can be expected from one year of hustle. Meanwhile, New Orleans officials have crafted a plan to use buses and trains to (18)______ the sick and the disabled. The city estimates that 15,000 people will need a (19)______ out. However, state officials have not yet determined where these people will be taken. The (20)______ with neighboring communities are ongoing and difficult.
1.  A. To          B. By           C. On           D. For
2.  A. fresh       B. obvious      C. apparent     D. evident
3.  A. visual      B. vivid        C. live         D. lively
4.  A. little      B. less         C. more         D. much
5.  A. reluctance  B. rejection    C. denial       D. decline
6.  A. natural     B. world        C. social       D. human
7.  A. revising    B. refining     C. rebuilding   D. retrieving
8.  A. review      B. reminder     C. concept      D. prospect
9.  A. preparing   B. protesting   C. protecting   D. prevailing
10. A. never       B. ever         C. then         D. before
11. A. up         B. down         C. over         D. out
12. A. merely      B. rarely       C. incidentally  D. accidentally
13. A. surge       B. spur         C. surf         D. splash
14. A. ensued      B. traced       C. followed     D. occurred
15. A. which       B. where        C. what         D. when
16. A. enough      B. certain      C. conclusive   D. final
17. A. but         B. as           C. that         D. those
18. A. exile       B. evacuate     C. dismiss      D. displace
19. A. ride        B. trail        C. path         D. track
20. A. conventions  B. notifications  C. communications  D. negotiations
Part II  Reading Comprehension (40 points)
Directions: There are 5 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by 5 questions. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Passage 1
The gift of being able to describe a face accurately is a rare one, as every experienced police officer knows to his cost. As the Lancet put it recently: “When we try to describe faces precisely words fail us, and we resort to identikit procedures.”
Yet, according to one authority on the subject, we can each probably recognize more than 1,000 faces, the majority of which differ in fine details. This, when one comes to think of it, is a tremendous feat, though, curiously enough, relatively little attention has been devoted to the fundamental problems of how and why we acquire this gift for recognizing and remembering faces. Is it an inborn property of our brains, or an acquired one? As so often happens, the experts tend to differ.
Thus, some argue that it is inborn, and that there are “special characteristics about the brain’s ability to distinguish faces”. In support of this, they note how much better we are at recognizing a face after a single encounter than we are, for example, in recognizing an individual horse. On the other hand, there are those, and they are probably in the majority, who claim that the gift is an acquired one.
The arguments in favor of this latter view, it must be confessed, are impressive. It is a habit that is acquired soon after birth. Watch, for instance, how a quite young baby recognizes his member by sight. Granted that his other senses help—the sound of other voice, his sense of smell, the distinctive way she handles him. But of all these, sight is predominant. Formed at the very beginning of life, the ability to recognize faces quickly becomes an established habit, and one that is, essential for daily living, if not necessarily for survival. How essential and valuable it is we probably do not appreciate until we encounter people who have been deprived of the faculty.
This unfortunate inability to recognize familiar faces is known to all, but such people can often recognize individuals by their voices, their walking manners or their spectacles. With typical human ingenuity many of these unfortunate people overcome their handicap by recognizing other characteristic features.
1. It is stated in the passage that ______.
    A. it is unusual for a person to be able to identify a face satisfactorily
    B. the ability to recognize faces unhesitatingly is an unusual gift
    C. quite a few people can visualize faces they have seen
    D. few people can give exact details of the appearance of a face
2. What the author feels strange about is that ______.
    A. people have the tremendous ability to recognize more than 1,000 faces
    B. people don’t think much of the problem of how and why we acquire the ability to recognize and remember faces
    C. people don’t realize how essential and valuable it is for them to have the ability to recognize faces
    D. people have been arguing much over the way people recognize and remember faces
3. What is the first suggested explanation of the origin of the ability?
    A. It is one of the characteristics peculiar to human beings.
    B. It is acquired soon after birth.
    C. It is something we can do from the very moment we are born.
    D. It is learned from our environment and experiences.
4. According to the passage, how important is the ability to recognize faces?
    A. It is useful in daily life but is not necessarily essential.
    B. Its absence would make normal everyday life impossible.
    C. Under certain circumstances we could not exist without it.
    D. Normal social life would be difficult without it.
5. This passage seems to emphasize that ______.
    A. the ability to recognize individuals is dependent on other senses as well as sight
    B. sight is indispensable to recognizing individuals
    C. the ability to recognize faces is a special inborn ability of the brain
    D. the importance of the ability of recognizing faces is fully appreciated by people
Passage 2
The long-term fortunes of the modern economy depend in part on the strength and sustainability of the family, both in relation to fertility trends and to marriage trends. This basic, but often overlooked, principle is now at work in the current global economic crisis.
The decline of marriage and fertility is one factor in the global economic crisis. That is, one reason that some of the world’s leading economies — from Japan to Italy to Spain to the Euro zone as a whole — are facing fiscal challenges is that their fertility rates have been below replacement levels (2.1 children per woman) for decades. Persistent sub-replacement fertility eventually translates into fewer workers relative to retirees, which puts tremendous strains on public offers and the economy as a whole. Indeed, one recent study finds that almost half the recent run-up in public debt in the West can be attributed to rapid aging over the last decades.
Even China may see its sky-high growth “come down to earth in the next few decades as its work force shrinks” because of its one-child policy, as Carlos Cavalle and I argue in a recent report, The Sustainable Demographic Dividend. By contrast, a recent Rand study suggests that “India will have more favorable demographics than China” over the next few decades, insofar as its work force is poised to grow. In fact, the Rand study suggests that India may be able to use this demographic advantage to outpace China’s economic growth rates by the end of the century. Finally, it’s not just fertility that matters; it’s also marriage. At least in the West, children are more likely to acquire the human and social capital they need to thrive in the modern economy when they are raised in an intact, married family. In the U.S., for instance, children are more likely to graduate from high school, complete college and be gainfully employed as young adults if they were raised in an intact, married family.
And around the globe, men are more likely to give their work their fullest effort and attention when they are married; this is one reason men worldwide enjoy “marriage premium” in their income, ranging from about 14 percent (Mexico) to 19 percent (United States) to 35 percent (Russia). So, at least when it comes to men, research suggests that marriage has important implications for worker productivity.
The bottom-line message is that what happens in the home does not stay at home; rather, the size of families, and their stability and quality, has important implication for the health of the global economy.
6. The main idea of this passage is that ______.
    A. women should bear more children in order to boost the economy
    B. both marriage and fertility affect a country’s economy
    C. marriage has important implications for worker productivity
    D. India will outpace China’s economic growth rate by the end of the century
7. One reason that the world’s leading economies are facing fiscal challenges is that ______.
    A. there is a global economic crisis in recent years
    B. there are fewer babies, and consequently, people spend less on many commodities
    C. people in these countries have fewer children than needed to replace the population for many years
    D. there are tremendous strains on public coffers and the economy as a whole
8. “…its work force is poised to grow” (para. 3) probably means ______.
    A. its work force pauses to grow
    B. its work force continues to grow fast
    C. its work force continues to grow steadily
    D. its work force grows slowly
9. From the passage we know that ______.
    A. children from an intact, married family are more likely to have a better life
    B. the more people a country has, the stronger economy it will have
    C. the health of the global economy depends entirely on individual families
    D. men are likely to work harder when they are going to have children
10. According to the passage, all the following can affect economy EXCEPT ______.
    A. the size of families
    B. the stability of families
    C. the quality of families
    D. men and women ratio within the families
Passage 3
What can rigid, cold calculating mathematics possibly have in common with subtle, creative, lofty, imaginative art? This question faithfully mirrors the state of mind of most people, even of most educated people, when they regard the numbers and symbols that populate the world of mathematics. But the great leaders of mathematics thought have frequently and repeatedly asserted that the object of their pursuit is just as much an art as it is a science, and perhaps even a fine art. Maxime Bocher, eminent mathematician living at the beginning of this century, wrote: “I like to look at mathematics almost more as an art than as a science; for the activity of the mathematician, constantly creating as he is, guided although not controlled by the external world of the senses, bears a resemblance, not fanciful, I believe, but real, to the activities of the artist — of a painter, let us say. Rigorous deductive reasoning on the part of the mathematician may be likened here to the technical skill in drawing on the part of the painter. Just as one cannot become a painter without a certain amount of skill, so no one can become a mathematician without the power to reason accurately up to a certain point. Yet these qualities, fundamental though they are, do not make a painter or a mathematician worthy of the name, nor indeed are they the most important factors in the case. Other qualities of a far more subtle sort, chief among which in both cases is imagination, go into the making of a good artist or a good mathematician.”
If mathematics wants to lay claim to being an art, however, it must show that it possesses and makes use of at least some of the elements that go to make up the things of beauty. Is not imagination, creative imagination, the most essential element of an art? Let us take a geometric object, such as the circle. To the ordinary man, this is the rim of a wheel, perhaps with spokes in it. Elementary geometry has crowded this simple figure with radii, chords, sectors, tangents, diameters, inscribed and circumscribed polygons, and so on.
Here you have already an entire geometrical world created from a very rudimentary beginning. These and other miracles are undeniable proof of the creative power of the mathematician; and, as if this were not enough, the mathematician allows the whole circle to “vanish”, declares it to be imaginary, then keeps on toying with his new creation in much the same way and with much the same gusto as he did with the innocent little thing you allowed him to start out with. And all this, remember please, is just elementary plane geometry. Truly, the creative imagination displayed by the mathematician has nowhere been exceeded, not even paralleled, and, I would make bold to say, now even closely approached anywhere else. In many ways mathematics exhibits the same elements of beauty that are generally acknowledged to be the essence of poetry.
First let us consider a minor point: the poet arranges his writings on the page in verses. His poem first appeals to the eye before it reaches the ear or the mind; and similarly, the mathematician lines up his formulas and equations so that their form may make an aesthetic impression. Some mathematicians are given to this love of arranging and exhibiting their equations to a degree that borders on a fault. Trigonometry, a branch of elementary mathematics particularly rich in formulas, offers some curious groups of them, curious in their symmetry and their arrangement.
The superiority of poetry over other forms of verbal expression lies first in the symbolism used in poetry, and secondly in its extreme condensation and economy of words. Take a poem of universally acknowledged merit, say, Shelley’s poem “To Night”. Here is the second stanza: Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, star-inwrought! Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; Kiss her until she be wearied out; Then wander o’er city, and sea, and land, Touching all with thine opiate wand — Come, long-sought!
Taken literally, all this is, of course, sheer nonsense and nothing else. Night has no hair, night does not wear any clothes, and night is not an illicit peddler of narcotics. But is there anybody balmy enough to take the words of the poet literally? The words here are only comparisons, only symbols. For the sake of condensation the poet doesn’t bother stating that his symbols mean such and such, but goes on to treat them as if they were realities.
The mathematician does these things precisely as the poet does. Take numbers, for example, the very idea of which is an abstraction, or symbol. When you write the figure 3, you have created a symbol for a symbol, and when you say in algebra that a is a number, you have condensed all the symbols for all the numbers into one all-embracing symbol. These, like other mathematical symbols, and like the poets’ symbols, are a condensed, concentrated way of stating a long and rather complicated chain of simple geometrical, algebraic, or numerical relations. Now, is mathematics an art?
11. The similarity between the activities of mathematicians and those of artists is ______.
    A. both are controlled by the external world
    B. both remember the senses of the world
    C. both are not fanciful but real
    D. both involve constant creating
12. In Maxime Bocher’s opinion, what is the fundamental element that makes a good artist or mathematician?
    A. Numerical skills
    B. Imagination
    C. Creation
    D. Sense of beauty
13. In what way do mathematicians exhibit the same elements of beauty as poet?
    A. Mathematicians would like to spare no effort to make their proofs elegant.
    B. Mathematicians love to arrange their formulas and equations so that they take a beautiful form.
    C. Mathematicians seldom arrange their formulas and equations in symmetry.
    D. Mathematicians like to arrange their formulas in verses.
14. Poetry is superior to other forms of expression for its ______.
    A. unusual diction
    B. imaginative expression
    C. symbolism, condensation and economy of words
    D. condensation and imaginative diction
15. Just like poets, mathematicians may ______.
    A. use symbols for the sake of condensation and concentration
    B. use symbols for the sake of comparison
    C. use poems as a kind of symbols
    D. use numbers to signify beauty
Passage 4
For one brief moment in April, Larry Ellison came within a few dollars of being the richest man in the world. The computer tycoon was holding a global conference call on a Wednesday morning, when the value of his company surged.
It was the moment he almost overtook Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, as the wealthiest on the planet. For a few seconds, as share of traders marked Microsoft down and Oracle up, Ellison came within US $200,000 of Gates. The self-proclaimed “bad boy” of Silicon Valley found himself worth more than US $52 billion, up from a mere US $10 billion this time last year. Then Microsoft’s share price, which had plunged in recent weeks, recovered and the moment passed.
Once, Ellison, founder of the software company Oracle, would have danced around his desk cursing like a pirate at failing to bring down Gates, a rival he had constantly made fun of in public. But Silicon Valley insiders said he remained calm, and muttered: “One day, one day very, very soon.” He knew his moment was close. Unlike Gates, he is not big on charity, preferring to spend his money in his way. He has his own private air force, a military-style crew based at San Jose airport near Redwood City, to help him fly his Gulfstream V jet (with two marbled bathrooms), a Marchetti fighter plane imported from Italy, and a handful of other aircraft, including a trainer for his son. He also plans to import a Russian Mig-29 fighter (capable of 1,500 mph). Why does he want one? So that, he joked, he can blast Gates home near Seattle. Cars are cheap and cheerful by comparison. He has a relatively-modest Porsche Boxster, two specially altered Mercedes and a US $900,000 silver McLaren. In San Francisco he owns a magnificent house in Pacific Heights, one of Western America’s most expensive stretches of real estate. The house is a technical marvel: When he inserts his key, the opaque glass door turns transparent, revealing a Japanese garden in the middle of the house. For reasons he knows best, Ellison is obsessed with Japanese culture.
While Gates comes from a strong family, Ellison still does not know who his father was. He was born to an unmarried mother and adopted by his Russian uncle and aunt. A brilliant but unpredictable self-promoter, he dropped out of college, drove to California in a battered Thunderbird car and ended up working with computer technicians at a bank. “He always had a champagne lifestyle on beer money,” his first wife said.
He set up Oracle in 1977 as a super-salesman with 3 programmers, creating software for businesses. It almost collapsed when it promised more than it could deliver, but since then its fortunes have soared. Now it employs 43,000 people and has designed data-processing systems used by Britain’s M15 spy service as well as big western companies. Oracle’s software is more Internet-friendly than Gates’ Windows, one factor behind the company’s recent share price rise.
Since his company got big, Ellison has promised shareholders that he will spend more time in the office. But can he escape being the thrill-seeker he is at heart? As summer approaches, he may find it hard to resist the lure of his yachts, Sakura, one of the longest in the world, and Sayonara (Japanese for “see you later”), which he races furiously. It is dangerous sport, even for guests. Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch once nearly lost a finger when he grabbed a rope during a race on board the Sayonara. Ellison joked at least he could “still write checks”.
Regardless of distractions, Ellison will not give up in his battle against Gates. He hates to lose. Ellison declares that any such dominance by one man, like Microsoft in computer industry, is unhealthy. He has obviously forgotten his own plan for a global empire, which he wanted to call the Universal Titanic Octopus Corporation.
16. In the stock market, ______.
    A. Ellison is as rich as Bill Gates
    B. Ellison has US $200,000 less than Bill Gates
    C. Ellison is richer than Bill Gates
    D. Oracle has more money than Microsoft
17. Unlike Bill Gates, Ellison ______.
    A. comes from a strong family
    B. has a poor father
    C. does not spend much on charity
    D. was born in California
18. Which of the following is NOT Ellison’s belongings?
    A. A Gulfstream V jet.
    B. A Marchetti fighter.
    C. A Porsche Boxster.
    D. A Russian Mig-29 fighter.
19. Which of the following is TRUE about Ellison?
    A. Ellison lacks the characteristics of calmness.
    B. Ellison dislikes Japanese culture.
    C. Ellison is keen on yachting.
    D. Ellison’s business has gone smoothly since the beginning.
20. Oracle’s advantage is that ______.
    A. its share price is pretty high
    B. it has more employees than Microsoft
    C. it’s the biggest western company
    D. its software is more internet-friendly than Microsoft
Passage 5
What is it that brings about such an intimate connection between language and thinking? Is there no thinking without the use of language, namely in concepts and concept-combinations for which words need not necessarily come to mind? Has not every one of us struggled for words although the connection between “thing” was already clear?
We might be inclined to attribute to the act of thinking complete independence from language if the individual formed or were able to form his concepts without the verbal guidance of his environment. Yet most likely the mental shape of an individual, growing up under such conditions, would be very poor. Thus we may conclude that the mental development of the individual and his way of forming concepts depend to a high degree upon language. This makes us realize to what extent the same language means the same mentality. In this sense thinking and language are linked together.
What distinguishes the language of science from language as we ordinarily understand the word? How is it that scientific language is international? What science strives for is an utmost acuteness and clarity of concepts as regards their mutual relation and their correspondence to sensory data. As an illustration, let us take the language of Euclidean geometry and Algebra. They manipulate with a small number of independently introduced concepts, respectively symbols, such as the integral number, the straight line, the point, as well as with signs which designate the fundamental operations, that is the connections between those fundamental concepts. This is the basis for the construction between concepts and statements on the one hand and sensory data on the other hand is established through acts of counting and measuring whose performance is sufficiently well determined.
The super-national character of scientific concepts and scientific language is due to the fact that they have been set up by the best brains of all countries and all times. In solitude and yet in cooperative effort as regards the final effect they created the spiritual tools for the technical revolutions which have transformed the life of mankind in the last centuries. Their system of concepts has served as a guide in the bewildering chaos of perceptions so that we learned to grasp general truths from particular observations.
What hopes and fears does the scientific method imply for mankind? I do not think that this is the right way to put a question. Whatever this tool in the hand of man will produce depends entirely on the goals alive in this mankind. Once these goals exist, the scientific method furnishes means to realize them. Yet it cannot furnish the very goals. The scientific method itself would not have led anywhere, it would not even have been born without a passionate striving for clear understanding. Perfections of means and confusion of goals seem — in my opinion — to characterize our age. If we desire sincerely and passionately the safety, the welfare and the free development of the talents of all men, we shall not be in want of the means of approach such a state. Even if only a small part of mankind strives for such goals, their superiority will prove itself in the long run.
21. How does the writer draw the conclusion that mental development of an individual depends much upon language?
    A. He studies statistics revealed by researchers.
    B. He managed to do it by reasoning.
    C. He does it by citing words from authorities.
    D. He merely asserts it to be the case.
22. According to the writer, scientific language is ______.
    A. super-national
    B. limited
    C. abstract
    D. boring
23. It can be inferred from the passage that the technical revolutions ______.
    A. have no spiritual tools
    B. have enlightened the thoughts of mankind
    C. have the little influence on the world
    D. have transformed the life of mankind
24. Which of the following statements would the writer probably favor?
    A. Scientific method can provide mankind with means to attain goals.
    B. Scientific method would lead us to doom and chaos.
    C. Scientific method can only lead to warfare.
    D. Scientific method is more important than scientific language.
25. The writer thinks that the characteristics of our age are ______.
    A. perfections of means and confusion of goals
    B. lack of scientific method and abundance of scientific language
    C. perfections of language and confusion of thinking
    D. lack of solitude and abundance of cooperation
Part III  Vocabulary & Structure (10 points)
Directions: In this part there are 20 incomplete sentences. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the ONE that best completes the sentence, then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
1. Parents often faced the ______ between doing what they felt was good for the development of the child and what they could stand by way of undisciplined noise and destructiveness.
    A. junction    B. paradox    C. premise    D. dilemma
2. During the 19th century further advances were made, notably Bessemer’s process for ______ iron into steel, which made the material more commercially viable.
    A. altering    B. varying    C. converting    D. transforming
3. To help students understand how we see, teachers often draw an ______ between an eye and a camera.
    A. image    B. analogy    C. imitation    D. axis
4. It is our ______ policy that we will achieve unity through peaceful means.
    A. consistent    B. considerate    C. certain    D. decisive
5. The tutor tells the undergraduate that one can acquire ______ in a foreign language through more practice.
    A. proficiency    B. efficiency    C. efficacy    D. frequency
6. Too much ______ to X-rays can cause skin burn, cancer or other damage to the body.
    A. disclose    B. exhibition    C. contact    D. exposure
7. They were forced to ______ on necessities in order to make their limited supplies last the longish winter.
    A. skimp    B. exhaust    C. stingy    D. count
8. Although architecture has artistic qualities, it must also satisfy a number of important practical ______.
    A. obligations    B. regulations    C. observations    D. considerations
9. Rumors are everywhere, spreading fear, damaging reputations, and turning calm situation into ______ ones.
    A. turbulent    B. tragic    C. vulnerable    D. suspicious
10. There is supposed to be a safety ______ which makes it impossible for trains to collide.
    A. appliance    B. accessory    C. machine    D. mechanism
11. Before taking a standardized test, one should ______ himself or herself with all the items that constitute the test paper.
    A. acquaint    B. fascinate    C. acquit    D. familiar
12. Frank stormed into the room and ______ the door, but it wasn’t that easy to close the door on what Jack had said.
    A. slashed    B. slammed    C. slipped    D. slapped
13. They were in a dreadful ______ when their money, tickets and passports were stolen while they were on holiday.
    A. conspiracy    B. plight    C. serenity    D. custody
14. In the case of Finney, where an attendant at a mental hospital caused the death of a patient by releasing a flow of boiling water into a bath, the test was whether he was grossly ______.
    A. negative    B. negligent    C. neglected    D. negligible
15. There is a general ______ that pouring old wine into the same bottles is the wrong way to go.
    A. consensus    B. census    C. censorship    D. conscience
16. My eyes had become ______ to the now semi-darkness, so I could pick out shapes about seventy-five yards away.
    A. inclined    B. accustomed    C. vulnerable    D. sensitive
17. This young man, ______ with a craving for materialistic gratification, cares about nothing but money.
    A. obsessed    B. negotiated    C. compromised    D. provided
18. The parents felt very delighted when their daughter decided to ______ the movies and do her lessons.
    A. forgive    B. forbid    C. forgo    D. foresee
19. I am thankful to the company for giving me such a chance, and I earnestly hope that I will ______ everyone’s expectations.
    A. boil down to    B. look forward to    C. live up to    D. catch on to
20. By the end of the Spring and Autumn Period slave society was ______ disintegration.
    A. on the ground of    B. on the top of    C. in the light of    D. on the verge of
Part IV  Translation (20 points)
Section A (10 points)
Directions: Read the following passage first and then translate the passage into proper Chinese. Write your Chinese version in the space provided on the Answer Sheet.
The intimacy between man and nature begins with the birth of man on the earth, and becomes each century more intelligent and far-reaching. To nature, therefore, we turn as to the oldest aim most influential teacher of our race; from one point of view once our task-master, now our servant; from another point of view, our constant friend, instructor and inspirer. The very intimacy of this relation robs it of a certain mystery and richness which it would have for all minds if it were the reward of the few instead of being the privilege of the many. To the few it is, in every age, full of wonder and beauty; to the many it is a matter of course.
Section B (10 points)
Directions: Read the following passage first and then translate the passage into proper English. Write your English version in the space provided on the Answer Sheet.
二十四小时的全天候时间表在改变着我们的生活方式。21世纪的办公地点无处不在。我们外出度假时会随身携带无线手机或手提电脑。有些人甚至把手机带入音乐厅或会议厅，因为在他们看来，错过一个重要的商业信息是不可弥补的过失。二十四小时的超高速的“因特网时间”使我们无法静心休息和思考。越来越多的企业行政主管开始把自己有时间睡觉作为吹牛的资本。对他们来说，地位的最大标志在于无能力按照自然的生物钟而非网络钟来工作和休息。
Part V  Writing (20 points)
Directions: In this part, you are expected to write a composition entitled Has Technology Made the World a Better Place to Live? in no less than 300 words. Please write your composition readably and neatly on the Answer Sheet.
 
参考答案（翻译部分）
Passage 5  全文翻译
是什么导致了语言和思想之间如此紧密的联系？是否不使用语言就没有思维呢，也就是说思想仅仅存在于概念和概念组合中而无需词汇出现在头脑中吗？我们每个人不都曾经搜肠刮肚地想着措辞，即使早已明白了“事物”之间的联系？
如果个人在没有外界的语言引导下形成了或者能够形成自己的观念，我们往往认为思想相对于语言具有完全独立性。然而，在这种条件下成长起来的人，智力情况很可能是十分糟糕的。所以我们可以得出结论，个人智力的发展和他形成概念的方式在很大程度上取决于语言。这使我们认识到在多大程度上语言与之对应的智力水平相同。在这种意义上思想和语言是联系在一起的。
是什么把科学语言与我们平时所理解的语言一词区分开来？为什么科学界的语言是全球通用的呢？就概念的相互关系以及它们与感官数据的一致性而言，科学力求的是概念的极度精确与清晰。让我们以欧几里得的几何学语言和代数学语言为例，它们通过为数不多且相互独立的概念来运作与之一一相应的符号，如整数、直线、点还有代表基本概念的符号。这是结构的基础，分别用来定义所有其他的论点与概念。一边是概念和表述，另一边是感官数据，两者间的联系是通过计算和测量的方式确定的，这些方式的应用经过了高度精确的限定。
科学概念和科学语言这种超越国界的特性根源于以下事实，即它们是由各个国家、各个时代最优秀的精英所建立。无论最终成果是单独完成的还是经过群体的努力，这些精英们都创造了技术革新的精神工具，这些革新在过去的几百年里改变了人类的生活。他们的概念体系在令人困惑的、纷乱的感知过程中起了导航的作用，使我们能从具体的观察中把握住一般的真理。
科学的方法对人类意味着什么样的希望和恐惧呢？我认为这样问并不妥当。科学方法这一工具在人类手中能产生什么完全取决于人类所追求的目标的本质。一旦这些目标存在，科学的方法就会提供实现它们的手段，但是它并不能使每个目标得以实现。科学方法本身并不会通向何方，如果没有对透彻理解的狂热追求，它甚至无法产生。在我看来，方法的完美和目标的混乱似乎是我们这个时代的特征。如果我们真诚、热切地渴望所有人得到安全、幸福和才能的自由发展，我们不会缺乏方法来接近这种状态。即使只有小部分人为这样的目标努力，他们自己的优势最终也会不言而喻。
Part IV  Translation  Section A 参考译文
人与自然的亲密关系从地球上人类诞生就开始了，并且每个世纪变得愈发理性和深远。因此，我们求助于自然就好像求助于我们人类最年长最有影响力的老师。从某个观点来看，自然曾是我们的监工，现在却是我们的奴仆。但从另一个观点来看，自然一直是我们的朋友、教导者和启发者。如果自然仅仅是少数人的回馈而不能作为大多数人的礼遇，这种亲昵关系就会剥夺去相当一部分它在所有人心中的神秘感和富足感。对于少数人而言，这种关系在每个时代充满奇幻和美妙，对于大多数人也理所当然。