泰祺教育

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)

Comparisons were drawn between the development of television in the 20th century and the spread of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much had happened   1   the two periods. As was discussed before, it was not   2   the 19th century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic   3   , following in the wake of the pamphlet and the book and in the   4   of the periodical. It was during the same time that the communications revolution

  5   up, beginning with transport, the railway, and leading   6   through the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and motion pictures   7   the 20th-century world of the motor car and the air plane. Not everyone sees that process in    8   . It is important to do so.

It is generally recognized,   9   , that the introduction of the computer in the early 20th century,   10   by the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process,   11   its impact on the media was not immediately   12   . As time went by, computers became smaller and more powerful, and they became “personal” too, as well as

  13   , with display becoming sharper and storage   14   increasing. They were thought of, like people,   15   generations, with the distance between generations much    16   .

It was within the computer age that the term “information society” began to be widely used to describe the   17   within which we now live. The communications revolution has   18    

both work and leisure and how we think and feel both about place and time, but there have been

  19   view about its economic, political, social and cultural implications. “Benefits” have been weighed    20   “harmful” outcomes. And generalizations have proved difficult.

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

Text 1

Nicola Sturgeon’s speech last Tuesday setting out the Scottish government’s legislative programme for the year ahead confirmed what was already pretty clear. Scottish councils are set to be the first in the UK with the power to levy charges on visitors, with Edinburgh likely to lead the way.

Tourist taxes are not new. The Himayalan kingdom of Bhutan has a longstanding policy of charging visitors a daily fee. France’s taxe de séjour on overnight stays was introduced to assist thermal spa（温泉）towns to develop, and around half of French local authorities use it today. But such levies are on the rise. Moves by Barcelona and Venice to deal with the phenomenon of “over-tourism” through the use of charges have recently gained prominence. Japan and Greece are among the countries to have recently introduced tourist taxes.

That the UK lags behind is due to our weak, by international standards, local government, as well as the opposition to taxes and regulation of our aggressively pro-market ruling party. Some UK cities have lobbied without success for the power to levy a charge on visitors. Such levies are no universal remedy as the amounts raised would be tiny compared with what has been taken away by central government since 2010. Still, it is to be hoped that the Scottish government’s bold move will prompt others to act. There is no reason why visitors to the UK, or domestic tourists on holiday in hotspots such as Cornwall, should be exempt from taxation — particularly when vital local services including waste collection, park maintenance and arts and culture spending are under financial strain.

On the contrary, compelling tourists to make a financial contribution to the places they visit beyond their personal consumption should be part of a wider cultural shift. Western tourists have often behaved as if they have a right to go wherever they choose with little regard for the consequences. Just as the environmental harm caused by aviation and other transport must come under far greater scrutiny, the social cost of tourism must also be confronted. This includes the impact of short-term lets on housing costs and quality of life for residents. Several European capitals, including Paris and Berlin, are leading a campaign for tougher regulation by the European Union. It also includes the impact of overcrowding, liter and the kinds of behavior associated with noisy parties.

There is no “one size fits all” solution to this problem. The existence of new revenue streams for some but not all councils is complicated, and businesses are often opposed, fearing higher costs will make them uncompetitive. But those places that want them must be given the chance to make tourist taxes work. 

Text 2

When Dick Lippert’s wife, Cynthia, decided to become a minister, the former telecommunications CEO realized he needed a weekend hobby. In April 2000, Lippert, who calls himself a “car fanatic” and an “adrenaline（肾上腺素）junkie,” took a few courses at a Skip Barber Racing School in Laguna Seca, Calif. (www.skipbarber.com), then began competing in its regional and then national Masters Series. One year, the 61-year-old placed second out of about 20. “When you're in the car, you’re not thinking about the flight on Monday, or a meeting at the office or that your child needs braces”, he says. “It’s a mental escape.”

On the professional racing circuit, the winner’s circle skews the young: NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon is 35, the Indy 500’s Dario Franchitti is 34. But when it comes to recreational high-speed driving, baby boomers dominate. At the Sports Car Club of America, 64.5 percent of members are over 45. “Racing is expensive, so it’s not until they’re successful and have time and money that they can fulfill what they’ve been thinking about since they were 7,” says Rick Roso, Skip Barber's public-relations director.

At Skip Barber, which has racing schools across the country, one of the most popular classes among boomers is the High Performance Driving course ($1,595 for one day, $2,895 for two), where students choose three cars from a fantasy menu of Porsches, BMWs and Corvettes. Feel like driving an autocross session? Then slip into a Porsche 911 for a solo race against the clock. Thinking about buying a BMW M3? Go out for a day and take it for a high-speed test drive. Skip Barber also lets boomers race in formula or sports cars, offering Masters (over 40) and Grand Masters (over 50) series. Type-A personalities might appreciate the Jim Russell Racing School (www.jimrussellusa.com), which offers both a kart (a small, open-wheel car) and a formula series.

While racing may be a mental escape, it’s hard on the wallet. Lippert says that participation in a full season runs him between $50,000 and $60,000—and that’s “with minimal crash damage.” Skip Barber’s average client earns more than $200,000 a year, with serious racers often earning more. “Those are the people who are entrepreneurs or high-level executives and are self-made in some fashion,” says Roso. “This is their boat, this is their airplane.”

For some, exclusivity is half the fun. Ferrari owners who participate in the Ferrari Driving Experience (experienceferrari.com) spend $8,200 for a weekend at Mont Tremblant, a Quebec resort town, rubbing shoulders with fellow magnates (average annual income of a Ferrari owner: more than $1 million) and speeding around a 15-corner circuit—with multiple elevation changes and blind corners—that meets Formula 1 standards. After a day of exertion, they can repair to the chateau-like Hotel Quintessence, enjoy Bordeaux out of the wine bar’s 5,000-bottle cellar and shift into low gear.

Text 3

Picture a typical MBA lecture theatre twenty years ago. In it the majority of students will have conformed to the standard model of the time: male, middle class and Western. Walk into a class today, however, and you'll get a completely different impression. For a start, you will now see plenty more women — the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, for example, boasts that 40% of its new enrollment are female, you will also see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationals of practically every country.

It might be tempting, therefore, to think that the old barriers have been broken down and equal opportunity achieved. But, increasingly, this apparent diversity is becoming a mask for a new type of conformity. Behind the differences in sex, skins and mother tongues, there are common attitudes, expectations and ambitions which risk creating a set of clones among the business leaders of the future.

Diversity, it seems, has not helped to address fundamental weaknesses in business leadership. So, what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world? According to Valerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, the key lies in the process by which MBA programmes recruit their students. At the moment candidates are selected on a fairly narrow set of criteria such as prior academic and career performance, and analytical and problem solving abilities. This is then coupled to a school's mixture of what a diverse class should look like, with the result that passport, ethnic origin and sex can all become influencing factors. But schools rarely dig down to attitude and approach — the only diversity that really matters.

Professor Gauthier believes schools should not just be selecting candidates from traditional sectors such as banking, consultancy and industry. They should also be seeking individuals who have backgrounds in areas such as political science, the creative arts, history or philosophy, which will allow them to put business decisions into a wider context.

Indeed, there does seem to be a demand for the more rounded leaders such diversity might create. A study by Mannaz, a leadership development company, suggests that, while the bully-boy chief executive of old may not have been eradicated completely, there is a definite shift in emphasis towards less tough styles of management — at least in America and Europe. Perhaps most significant, according to Mannaz, is the increasing interest large companies have in more collaborative management models, such as those prevalent in Scandinavia, which seek to integrate the hard and soft aspects of leadership and encourage delegated responsibility and accountability. 

Text 4

Educators and business leaders have more in common than it may seem. Teachers want to prepare students skills for a successful future. Technology companies have an interest in developing a workforce with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills needed to grow the company and advance the industry. How can they work together to achieve these goals? Play may be the answer.

Focusing on STEM skills is important, but the reality is that STEM skills are enhanced and more relevant when combined with traditional, hands-on creative activities. This combination is proving to be the best way to prepare today's children to be the makers and builders of tomorrow. That is why technology companies are partnering with educators' to bring back good, old-fashioned play.

In fact many experts argue that the most important 21st-century skills aren't related to specific technologies or subject matter, but to creativity; skills like imagination, problem -finding and problem-solving, teamwork, optimism, patience and the ability to experiment and take risks. These are skills acquired when kids tinker（捣鼓小玩意）. High-tech industries such as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that their best overall problem solvers were master tinkerers in their youth.

There are cognitive benefits of doing things the way we did as children — building something, tearing it down, then building it up again. Research shows that given 15 minutes of free play, four and five-year-olds will spend a third of this time engaged in spatial, mathematical, and architectural activities. This type of play — especially with building blocks — helps children discover and develop key principles in math and geometry.

If play and building are critical to 2lst-century skill development, that's really good news for two reasons: Children are born builders, makers, and creators, so fostering 21st-century skills may be as simple as giving kids room to play, tinker and try things out, even as they grow older. Secondly, it doesn’t take 21st-century technology to foster 21st-century skills. This is especially important for under-resourced schools and communities. Taking whatever materials are handy and tinkering with them is a simple way to engage those important "maker" skills. And anyone, anywhere, can do it.

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 paragraph (41—45). There are two extra subheadings which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET I. (10 points)

［A］ What to do as a student?

［B］ Various definitions of plagiarism

［C］ Ideas should always be sourced

［D］ Oversight plagiarism can be forgiven

［E］ Plagiarism is equivalent to theft

［F］ The consequences of plagiarism

［G］ Acknowledgement is important

Scholars, writers and teachers in the modern academic community have strong feelings about acknowledging the use of another person’s ideas. In the English-speaking world, the term plagiarism is used to label the practice of not giving credit for the source of one’s ideas. Simply stated, plagiarism is “the wrongful appreciation or purloining, and publication as one’s own of the ideas, or the expression of ideas of another.”