写作

1. 大学生毕业找工作难，有人开始宣扬高等教育无用论

2. 反驳说明这一观点是错的

3. 得出结论

In the current climate of rising college fees and tight job market, the functions of higher education is arousing public concern. Having a degree or not seems not to make any difference to our life and may not necessarily guarantee a good job and income.

Students who attend higher education obtain a wide range of personal, financial and other lifelong benefits. First of all, the whole experiences of university life including all the academic lectures and social practices forge our personality and cultivate such virtues as cooperativeness and openness. In addition, according to the statistics, there is a trendy correlation between higher level of education and higher earnings despite the fierce job hunting competition. University is a　huge advantage if we need to acquire expertise to practice in a meaningful profession.

In my opinion, it would be wise to attend university. Having a decent degree and being broadly intelligent may not guarantee us success, but it makes us a candidate.

阅读一

Art is considered by many people to be little more than a decorative means of giving pleasure. This is not always the case, however; at times, art may be seen to have a purely functional side as well. Such could be said of the sandpaintings of the Navaho Indians of the American Southwest; these have a medicinal as well as an artistic purpose.

According to Navaho traditions, one who suffers from either a mental or a physical illness has in come way disturbed or come in contact with the supernatural—perhaps a certain animal, a ghost, or the dead. To counteract this evil contact, the ill person or one of his relatives will employ a medicine man called a “singer” to perform a healing ceremony which will attract a powerful supernatural being.

During the ceremony, which may last from 2 to 9 days, the “singer” will produce a sandpainting on the floor of the Navaho hogan. On the last day of the ceremony, the patient will sit on this sandpainting and the “singer” will rub the ailing parts of the patient’s body with sand from a specific figure in the sandpainting. In this way the patient absorbs the power of that particular supernatural being and becomes strong like it. After the ceremony, the sandpainting is then destroyed and disposed of so its power will not harm anyone.

The art of sandpainting is handed down from old “singer” to their students. The material used are easily found in the areas the Navaho inhabit; brown, red, yellow, and white sandstone, which is pulverized by being crushed between 2 stones much as corns is ground into flour. The “singer” holds a small amount of this sand in his hand and lets it flow between his thumb and fore-finger onto a clean, flat surface on the floor. With a steady hand and great patience, he is thus able to create designs of stylized people, snakes and other creatures that have power in the Navaho belief system. The traditional Navaho does not allow reproduction of sandpaintings, since he believes the supernatural powers that taught him the craft have forbidden this; however, such reproductions can in fact be purchased today in tourist shops in Arizona and New Mexico. These are done by either Navaho Indians or by other people who wish to preserve this craft.

1.The purpose of the passage is to ___.

A.discuss the medical uses of sandpaintings in medieval Europe.

B.study the ways Navaho Indians handed down their painting art.

C.consider how Navaho “singer” treat their ailments with sandpaintings.

D.tell how Navaho Indians apply sandpainting for medical purposes.

2.The purpose of a healing ceremony lies in ___.

A.pleasing the ghosts

B.attracting supernatural powers

C.attracting the ghosts

D.creating a sandpainting

3.The “singer” rubs sand on the patient because ___.

A.the patient receives strength from the sand

B.it has pharmaceutical value

C.it decorates the patient

D.none of the above

4.What is used to produce a sandpainting?

A.Paint

B.Beach sand

C.Crushed sandstone

D.Flour

5.Which of the following titles will be best suit the passage?

A.A New Direction for Medical Research

B.The Navaho Indians’ Sandpainting

C.The Process of Sandpainting Creation

D.The Navaho Indians’ Medical History

　　答案：DBACB

　　阅读二

Federal Reserve System, central banking system of the United States, popularly called the Fed. A central bank serves as the banker to both the banking community and the government; it also issues the national currency, conducts monetary policy, and plays a major role in the supervision and regulation of banks and bank holding companies. In the U.S. these function are the responsibilities of key officials of the Federal Reserve System: the Board of Governors, located in Washington, D.C., and the top officers of 12 district Federal Reserve banks, located throughout the nation. The Fed’s actions, described below, generally have a significant effect on U.S. interest rates and, subsequently, on stock, bond, and other financial markets.

The Federal Reserve’s basic powers are concentrated in the Board of Governors, which is paramount in all policy issues concerning bank regulation and supervision and in most aspects of monetary control. The board enunciates the Fed’s policies on both monetary and banking matter. Because the board is not an operating agency, most of the day-to day implementation of policy decisions is left to the district Federal Reserve banks, stock in which is owned by the commercial banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. Ownership in this instance, however, does not imply control; the Board of Governors and the heads of the Reserve banks orient their policies to the public interest rather than to the benefit of the private banking system.

The U.S. banking system’s regulatory apparatus is complex; the authority of the Federal Reserve is shared in some instances for example, in mergers or the examination of banks with other Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In the critical area of regulating the nation’s money supply in accordance with national economic goals, however, the Federal Reserve is independent within the government, Income and expenditures of the Federal Reserve banks and of the board of governors are not subject to the congressional appropriation process; the Federal Reserve is self-financing. Its income ($20.2 billion in 1992) comes mainly from Reserve bank holdings of income-earning securities, primarily those of the U.S. government. Outlays ($1.5 billion in 1992) are mostly for operational expenses in providing services to the government and for expenditures connected with regulation and monetary policy. In 1992 the Federal Reserve returned 416.8 billion in earnings to the U.S. treasury.

1.The Fed of the United States ___.

A.function as China Bank

B.is the counterpart of People’s Bank of China

C.is subjected to the banking community and government

D.has 13 top officers who can influence the American financial market

2.The fact that stock in the Fed belongs to commercial banks ___.

A.doesn’t mean the latter is in control

B.means the latter is in control

C.means the latter is subjected to the Reserve banks

D.means the Reserve banks orient the latter’s policies

3.Which of the following statements is not true according to the passage?

A.The fed is a very big, complex and significant system which comprises many local banks.

B.All the commercial banks are not the components of Federal Reserve System.

C.Board of governors is the supreme policy-makers of America.

D.District Reserve banks rather than Board of governors perform the day-to-day policies.

4.The authority of the federal Reserve ___.

A.has to be shared with other establishments.

B.is exclusive at other times

C.isn’t limited by comptroller of the Currency and FDIC

D.is limited by Board of governors

5.Income of the Board of governors ___.

A.is borrowed from the U.S. treasury

B.is used by the government to make various policies

C.comes from the U.S. Treasury

D.is not granted by the government

答案：BACBD

阅读三

The food irradiation process is a simple one. The new U.S. plant, Vindicator of Florida Incorporated in Mulberry, Fla., uses a material called cobalt 60 to irradiate food. Cobalt 60 is radioactive isotope (form) of the metallic element cobalt. Cobalt 60, which gives off radiation in the form of gamma rays, is also used for radiation therapy for cancer patients and for sterilizing hospital equipment. The radioactive isotope is created by bombarding cobalt with subatomic particles in a nuclear reactor. However, irradiation plants do not themselves contain nuclear reactors.

In the irradiation plant, food is exposed to thin rods of cobalt 60. The rods give off gamma rays, which disrupt chemical processes in contaminating organisms. The disruption breaks down the cell walls of organisms or destroys their genetic material. The dose, set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is enough to kill organisms on food, but not enough to produce significant changes in the food itself.

Although irradiation slightly decreases the nutritive value of foods, the loss is less than that produced by some other methods of food preservation. Canning, for example, results in a much greater loss of nutrients.

Those who object to irradiation say that the process may create substances not found in nonirradiated food. Since the 1960’s researchers have studied irradiated food at microscopic levels to try to find such substances, called unique radiolytic products. After reviewing these studies, the FDA determined that compounds formed during irradiation are similar to substance found in nonirradiated foods and are not dangerous to consume.

Destruction of microorganisms that cause illness is an important goal of irradiation. About 250 million cases of food poisoning or 1 per person—occur every year in the U.S., according to FDA estimates. Food poisoning can cause vomiting, diarrhea, fever, headache—and, occasionally, death.

Because of the apparent safety of food irradiation, and the problems presented by contaminated food, scientific groups—including the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations food and Agriculture Association—have voiced nearly universal support for the process. Worldwide, 38 nations have approved irradiation for 355 products.

Like microwave ovens, food irradiation has aroused apprehension and misunderstanding. Yet it has been scrutinized more thoroughly than other methods of food treatment that we have come to regard as safe, and it appears to be a method whose time has come.

1.Cobalt 60, besides irradiating food, is also employed to ___.

A.detect metallic flaws

B.run a nuclear reactor

C.cure cancer patients

D.strengthen concrete walls

2.Gamma rays used to irradiate food ___.

A.are generally not strong enough to destroy contaminating organisms

B.do not bring about significant changes in the food itself

C.may destroy some of the nutrients in the food

D.should be submitted to FDA for approval

3.Irradiated food ___.

A.certainly loses its nutritive value

B.maintains its nutritive value no different from the nonirradiated

C.keeps its nutritive value better than canned food

D.is recommended as the best of all preserved foods

4.With cases of food poisoning increasing, ___.

A.food irradiation should be carried out with care

B.it is more urgent to irradiate foods

C.medical researches into treatment of the diseased should be strengthened

D.Americans are beginning to accept food irradiation

5.The passage may be taken from ___.

A.a news report

B.a textbook of food processing

C.a book of popular science

D.a manual of food irradiation

答案：CBCCD

　　翻译

我们还不知道奥巴马效应(包括它的利与弊)会持续多久。zz舆论以它的善变而臭名昭著：如果奥巴马犯错了，如果他的支持率暴跌，会怎样呢?

而如果美国人渐渐对奥巴马这样一位总统熟悉适应起来，从而可以完全不注重他的种族呢?“随着时间的流逝，他可能会以他自己的个体身份来被人们看待。”Plant说。这似乎是与种族歧视作斗争的终极目标，但是忽视人种而只看待单独的个体(那是一种被心理学家称为“亚型”的现象)，也会有隐含危机。“我们认为使人们坚持他们的信念是无可厚非的，所以他们仍然可以继续保有他们先前的种族成见。”那会对是奥巴马效应最残忍的解释。

参考译文

We also don’t yet know how long the Obama effect—both its good side and its bad—will last.Political sentiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?

And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? "Over time he might become his own entity," says Plant. This might seem like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individuals—a phenomenon that psychologists call subtyping—also has an insidious (隐伏的) side. "We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes." That could turn out to be the cruellest of all the twists to the Obama effect.