问答题Practice 1　　The catchphrase of the hour is that America is living beyond its means. The expression is used so much by politicians, economists and editorial writers that it is depreciating faster than the dollar. But there's no way around it. It tells t

Practice 1　　No one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing. For all our success in measuring the tiniest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe.　　One way of thinking about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. When something changes, you know time has passed.

Practice 1　　France today is no superpower, but French influence in some spheres is significant. Nothing has cemented French influence in the world like the decision made by the victorious World War II powers in 1945 to include France as one of the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council. Until the end of the Cold War, France rarely found itself in disagreement with Britain or the U.S. on major issues. But the U. N. veto today takes on larger significance as France struggles to decide whether it wants to lead the European Union in defiance of American power or in partnership with it.　　As America’s great media outlets have begun preparing for coverage of the D-Day celebrations, the question of a “grand gesture” by the French toward the American war in Iraq, has been raised. Administration officials hint that. perhaps，just perhaps，the French President wm use the occasion of France's rescue as an opportunity to square the accounts—to issue a blanket endorsement of America 78 plan for Iraq’s future and throw its support behind the transfer of power looming at the end of the month. France certainly wants the United States-to be successful in Iraq at this point. But France seems unlikely to see D-Day as an opportunity to make good on a 60-year-old debt. Beyond nice speeches and some truly fine cuisine, don't expect France to liberate America from Iraq.

Practice 4　　Europeans have long aspired to end American dominance as the world’s economic leader. The single market and the euro are widely seen as essential steps in this direction. But is Europe ready to lead? Do Europeans understand what it would take?　　Despite a budding recovery, the United States is hardly the model of economic health that it once was. On several issues—from steel tariffs to the resurgent deficit to shady corporate practices—America has demonstrated a growing failure of leadership. Over the past two decades the United States has shown what it takes to be an economic superpower—a strong currency, openness to imports, concessions in trade negotiations and articulating an economic philosophy for the rest of the world. Now that it’s apparently fading on so many counts, the question becomes: is Europe willing and prepared to do what the United States once did, in order to supplant it?　　First the exchange-rate issue. The euro will probably continue strengthening against the dollar, if only because of America’s huge and growing $400 billion-a-year current-account deficit. This means that, every year, the United States borrows about 4 percent of its GDP on world markets. If international investors lose confidence in the U.S. economy, fewer people will want to hold dollar assets. The dollar will fall—and the euro will appreciate.　　This may be a normal market cycle, but there will be consequences. Among others, European companies will see their U.S. profits erode. What happens if the dollar falls farther and faster than anticipated? Are European industrial companies ready to compete with a euro worth $1.10, $1.15 or $1.25? The flip side of the much-desired strong euro would almost certainly be a surge in imports from the United States and the rest of the world. Exports might fall, resulting in job losses—perhaps even a trade deficit for the European Union.　　Europeans are rightfully angry at new U.S. steel tariffs. But given the sheer size of America’s trade deficit, Washington’s policies are actually relatively moderate. The question remains: if Europe were in a similar position, would its voters and politicians be equally sensitive to what’s best for the global economy? Would European politicians be able to face the incredible pressures that would build for protectionist measures if it were Europe, and not the United States, that ran a persistent trade deficit? Not likely, I fear.　　America’s retreat from its leading role presents an opportunity for the European Union. Trouble is, its political institutions have yet to mature to the point where they can resolve trade disputes, say, by looking beyond the immediate and narrow self-interests of its member states.　　Europe’s chance for economic leadership may come sooner than expected. But too many Europeans haven’t yet grasped the basic secret of America’s leadership—the hard work and tough choices that are involved. That’s what Europeans now face, in this season of elections and decision making that will shape their future. Let’s hope they recognize that such sacrifices will pay off for them, as well as for the rest of the world.

Practice 7　　(1) Today’s wealthy parents perhaps realize their riches can be more of a heavy load than a happiness to their children. (2) So the first thing for them to consider is to ensure that their families are as rich in love as they are in money.

Practice 3　　It was the anti-globalization movement that really put globalization on the map. As a word it has existed since the 1960s, but the protests against this allegedly new process, which its opponents condemn as a way of ordering people’s lives, brought globalization out of the financial and academic worlds and into everyday current affairs.　　In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the business model called the “globalized” financial market came to be seen as an entity that could have more than just an economic impact on the parts of the world it touched. Globalization came to be seen as more than simply a way of doing business, or running financial markets—it became a process. From then on the word took on a life of its own.　　So how does the globalized market work? It is modern communications that make it possible; for the British service sector to deal with its customers through a call center in India, or for a sportswear (运动服) manufacturer to design its products in Europe, make them in south east Asia and sell them in north America.　　But this is where the anti-globalization side gets stuck in (关注). If these practices replace domestic economic life with an economy that is heavily influenced or controlled from overseas. Then the creation of a globalized economic model and the process of globalization can also be seen as a surrender of power to the corporations, or a means of keeping poorer nations in their place.　　Not everyone agrees that globalization is necessarily evil, or that globalized corporations are running the lives of individuals or are more powerful than nations. Some say that the spread of globalization, free markets and free trade into the developing world is the best way to beat poverty—the only problem is that free markets and free trade do not yet truly exist.　　Globalization can be seen as a positive, negative or even marginal process. And regardless of whether it works for good or ill, globalization’s exact meaning will continue to be the subject of debate among those who oppose, support or simply observe it.

Practice 8　　(1) Every country tends to accept its own way of life as being the normal one and to praise or criticize others as they are similar to or different from it. And unfortunately, our picture of the people and the way of life of other countries is often a distorted one.

Practice 10　　Glaciers in Antarctica are melting faster and across a much wider area than previously thought, a development that threatens to raise sea levels worldwide and force millions of people to flee low-lying areas. Researchers once believed that the melting was limited to the Antarctic Peninsula, a narrow tongue of land pointing toward South America. But satellite data and automated weather stations now indicate it is more widespread. The melting also extends all the way down to what is called west Antarctica. By the end of the century, the accelerated melting could cause sea levels to climb by 3 to 5 feet-levels substantially higher than predicted by a major scientific group just two years ago. Making matters worse, the ice shelves that hold the glaciers back from the sea are also weakening.　　For years, the continent at the bottom of the world seemed to be the only place on the planet not experiencing climate change. Previous research indicated that temperatures across much of Antarctica were staying the same or slightly cooling. The big surprise was exactly how much glaciers are melting in western Antarctica, a vast land mass on the Pacific Ocean side of the continent that is next to the South Pole and includes the Antarctic Peninsula. The glaciers are slipping into the sea faster because the floating ice shelf that would normally stop them—usually 650 t0980 feet thick—is melting. And the glaciers' discharge is making a significant contribution to increasing sea levels.　　Together, all the glaciers in west Antarctica are losing a total of around 114 billion tons per year because the melting is much greater than the new snowfall. That's equivalent to the current mass loss from the whole of the Greenland ice sheet, New research found that melting glaciers will add at least 7 inches to the world's sea level—and that's if carbon dioxide pollution is quickly capped and then reduced.

Practice 1　　The catchphrase of the hour is that America is living beyond its means. The expression is used so much by politicians, economists and editorial writers that it is depreciating faster than the dollar. But there's no way around it. It tells the story. The Data Resources numbers show Americans increase their spending this year almost three times as fast as their after-tax income. What else can we explain it? What is more, as a nation, the U.S. has been doing the same thing throughout the 1990s. For years the country has been consuming more than it produces, making up the difference by borrowing abroad. It can't go on.　　The stock market's tumble, which has caused a loss of $1 trillion in paper wealth, is but the first step in a process that must sober the nation. At the same time, in the next few years the U. S. will have to throw its amazing dream machine into reverse and start paying its debts. Inevitably, this will mean a lowering in the U.S. standard of living as Americans are forced to produce more than they consume to service a soaring foreign debt. Per capital income may keep rising but more slowly than in the past. The trade account will go slowly towards balance or even surplus in the mid-1990s. But in the meantime, Americans will receive less for their exports because the dollar will fall considerably before U. S. exports are competitive. And pressures to reduce the federal deficit will tighten the lid on defense spending.

Practice 3Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the topic “The pace of life nowadays is much faster than it was in the past and there is plenty of evidence to show that this causes people a lot of stress. What are some ways of alleviating stress?” You can cite examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

The text mainly tells us something about the history of Father’s Day in America.

Practice 5　　The large river best known to the ancient Greeks was the Nile of Egypt. They spoke of the river with admiration and called Egypt “the gift of the Nile”. The reason for this was, first, that the Nile brought water to a rainless desert and, second, that once a year, the river overflowed its banks, leaving, as the water went back, a new layer of fertile soil.　　The flood waters carry in them soil (called silt) from the upper parts of the river valley to the lower parts, and so to the sea. But as the river meets the sea, the sea acts as a barrier and forces the river to drop the silt it is carrying.　　There are no tides in the Mediterranean to carry the silt away, so year after year it collects at the mouth of the Nile, and the river must find its way around islands of silt to the always more distant Mediterranean. In this way, a vast area of fertile soil has been built up at the mouth of the Nile and out into the sea. The river water splits up to form small branches winding across the area. To the ancient Greeks, the mouth of the Nile looked like the drawing.　　Now we sometimes name things after the letters of the alphabet they resemble: a U-turn, an I-beam a T-square, an S-bend, and so on. The Greeks did the same. The triangular area of land built up at the mouth of the Nile looked like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet delta (Δ) and so this was the name they gave it. The word is now used for all areas of land formed at the mouth of rivers which flow into tideless seas, even when they are nor triangular in shape. The Mississippi delta, for example, is not shaped at all like the Greek delta, as you will see if you look at a map.