SAS Institute 2012 rank: 1 (2011 rank: 2)
Headquarters: Cary, N.C., USA
Software company SAS climbed to the top of the global list this year, edging up from the No. 2 spot it held last year. So what makes this company so great to work for? Well, for one thing, its leaders are certainly accessible. CEO Jim Goodnight hosts monthly “Conversations Over Coffee,” unscripted breakfast meetings that are open to all employees. These conversations are so popular that other division heads have begun to hold similar events for their employees.
Google 2012 rank: 2 (2011 rank: 4)
Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif., USA
Google moved up by two spots in this year’s ranking of global workplaces. The highly desirable tech receives 61 times as many applicants as they have existing jobs, and for good reason. Google seems to be all about coaching. The company’s “CareerGuru” program makes 43 of its senior leaders available for one-on-one, confidential career coaching sessions with other Googlers.
Engineering employees at all levels can also get advice from “EngAdvisors”, senior engineers at Google who can discuss any number of issues, like work-life balance, conflict resolution, and performance reviews.
NetApp 2012 rank: 3 (2011 rank: 3)
Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif., USA
All new employees at data storage provider NetApp participate in the TOAST (“Training On All Special Things”) orientation program, which introduces new arrivals to NetApp’s senior management. The meetings are held every month and are always led by the executive team.
Microsoft 2012 rank: 4 (2011 rank: 1)
Headquarters: Redmond, Wash., USA
As part of Microsoft’s commitment to promoting women in technology, the company established its DigiGirlz program in 2000. Microsoft hosts a series of DigiGirlz Day events where female high school students meet Microsoft employees and learn about careers in technology. In 2011, some 36 Microsoft locations across the world hosted more than 2,000 girls. Microsoft also holds DigiGirlz High Tech Camps, multi-day programs where participants get hands-on experience with technology during workshops and meet with tech executives. What helped make SAS climb to the top of the list in 2012?
| A．Accessible leaders. | B．Popular divisions. |
| C．Qualified employees. | D．Quality software. |
Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Microsoft employed over 2,000 girl workers in 2011. |
| B．New engineering Googlers could get advice from senior Googlers. |
| C．All NetApp employees had to attend a special training. |
| D．All leaders in SAS had the same conversations with their employees. |
These American companies are ranked according to _________.
| A．the training program each company establishes |
| B．the wealth each company possesses now |
| C．the level of technology each of the company reaches |
| D．the number of people willing to work for the company |
Art classes about animals & wildlife
All Creatures Large and Small
Animals bring something special to our life and give us inspiration for paintings that we will treasure. This workshop will focus on how to bring animals to life through color, lighting and good composition (构图). We will be working from photographs, so you will need to bring several good photos of your pets or wildlife animals.
Location Scottsdale, AZ
Instructor Phil Beck
Pet Portraiture (肖像画法) with Christine Fifer
Nothing teaches us to live in the moment more than our furry and feathered friends, and this workshop emphasizes (强调) the technical aspects of drawing and painting animals. Fifer is a long-time painter whose realistic style is simple and clear. No live models allowed (only a favorite picture or two)!
Location Key West, FL
Instructor Christine Fifer
Nature & Wildlife in the Field with Rafael Galvez
Limited to 12 students. Have a guided walk through a natural reserve and explore Charlotte’s wilderness with an experienced naturalist and bird painter, while learning about the region’s wildlife and habitats, and learning to paint from live subjects. Galvez emphasizes process rather than product.
Location Charlotte, NC
Instructor Rafael Galvez
Animal Drawing
A rare opportunity to work with live animals in the PAFA studios! Work with a horse and a dog served as models, learn skills and develop techniques for the graphic depiction (图形描绘) of animals. Explore a variety of drawing materials and techniques.
Location Philadelphia, PA
Instructor Peter van DyckPhil Beck will teach students to paint animals from .
| A．live models | B．his works |
| C．Pictures | D．famous paintings |
Where should you go if you want to learn to paint in the open air?
A. Scottsdale, AZ. B. Charlotte, NC.
C. Key West, FL. D. Philadelphia, PA.If you like to paint in a realistic style, you will learn from .
| A．Phil Beck | B．Peter van Dyck |
| C．Rafael Galvez | D．Christine Fifer |
People have always been wondering about what our future will look like. Go on reading this text, and you will know what will happen in the next fifty years.
How can we know what the future will look like? To be able to understand the future, you must know the past. What has taken us to where we are today and what has changed along the way? The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but we humans are driven by the same basic needs as we were 150 years ago. Will this change in the next 150 years? No.
What inventions have really made a difference in the last 150 years? In the past years, the inventions that have affected most people around the world for everyday living are the telephone, electricity, radio, television, computer, the car and the ability to communicate through the Internet. Then we of course have a lot of inventions that have made life easier, like new medicine, faster transports etc. In general, human beings have been working hard in the last 150 years to make the inventions so that they will be able to get control of the time and the world. Since there is still much to do in this area, this will be the focus at least for the next 150 years.
Why do we need to predict the future? Predicting the future is important for two reasons first we need to start to think about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and to pass on to the next generation, and then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give the best result in the future.What does the author try to tell us in the second paragraph?
| A．The world is quite different from what it was. |
| B．Our basic needs will not change in the future. |
| C．Humans will no longer enjoy food in the future. |
| D．The world will be completely changed tomorrow. |
Our past inventions have made .
| A．it easy for us to live |
| B．our daily life more stressful |
| C．our work easily done |
| D．us work less time |
What will humans do in order to keep the world under control?
| A．To produce more cars for transportation. |
| B．To focus on making more inventions. |
| C．To work much harder to achieve their goals. |
| D．To spend more time working on the Internet. |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．What result we’ll receive in the future. |
| B．The decisions we make for our future. |
| C．The importance of predicting the future. |
| D．The two reasons of predicting the future. |
Daniel Hillel developed drip irrigation (滴灌) techniques. The techniques make farming possible in places where there is not enough water. Because of this, he won this year’s World Food Prize.
Hillel is using the techniques in his orchards (果园) near his home in Israel.
Irrigating drop by drop — called drip irrigation — has changed agriculture by greatly reducing the amount of water needed.
Farmers now rely on it in places from Spain, to Africa, to America. “We in California grow about 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables of the continental United States,” says Jan Hopmans from University of California at Davis. “And these drip irrigation techniques make it possible.”
Hillel got his start in dry land farming in Israel’s Negev Desert in the 1950s. “The key was making good use of water,” he says. “There’s much land. Water is limited.” These farmers did not have the advantage of running irrigation water through channels (水渠) to their crops. So Hillel and others gave plants just what they needed and just where they needed it.
“The idea is to use water little by little,” Hillel says. It worked so well that Hillel was soon traveling around the world, showing others how to do it. Experts say drip irrigation’s importance is growing, as climate change and rising population make water supplies become few in many parts of the world.
“This is where water use, climate change and crop production all meet at one point,” Hillel says. “And this has been really the essence (本质) of my career.”
A career whose importance can be measured drop by drop.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4?
| A．Daniel Hillel is becoming popular worldwide. |
| B．Drip irrigation has greatly affected agriculture. |
| C．Jan Hopmans takes pride in American agriculture. |
| D．Drip irrigation plays a key role in American agriculture. |
Drip irrigation is popular because .
| A．it can make the most use of water |
| B．it can be used all around the world |
| C．it can provide plants with what is needed |
| D．it is more advanced than channel irrigation |
What makes drip irrigation seem increasingly important?
| A．Dry land farming. | B．Environmental pollution. |
| C．Food shortages. | D．Water shortages. |
The writer considers Daniel Hillel’s career to be .
| A．worthy of respect | B．worthy of understanding |
| C．brief | D．hard |
Are you the type of person who always says yes? However, it’s OK to say no! People are still going to like you. They may even respect you more because they know you are honest.
I’m not saying that you should say no to someone who really needs your help. I’m talking about turning down the meeting that you really do not want to go to or the birthday party that you don’t want to be a guest at.
Think for a moment how you feel when you say yes to something that you really don’t want to do. If you’re like what I once was, you can’t sleep at night and you think about it too much. It weighs on your mind. You try to find ways out. If you really want to go, you will not have all of these thoughts.
So, why not just say no from the beginning? Maybe you think if you don’t show up at the meeting (by the way, it is not one you must go to), your boss isn’t going to like you or your co-workers won’t respect you. Maybe you feel as if your mom, dad or sisters won’t love you as much if you don’t do everything for them.
If these people are your true friends, family members, or a good boss, they will like or love you the same. People treat you the way you teach them to, and if you’re someone who always says yes then that’s what they’re expecting.
You need to do what is right for you. Of course we do have real obligations (责任) in life to meet, but we do not have to do everything others want us to do.In the writer’s opinion, .
| A．we must do what is right for other people |
| B．it is not always easy to win friends’ trust |
| C．saying yes is the best way to win others’ respect |
| D．learning to say no is very important in our life |
The underlined sentence “It weighs on your mind” in the third paragraph probably means “ ”.
| A．you are worried about it very much |
| B．you try to find excuses to refuse it |
| C．you are too busy to care about it |
| D．it fills your mind with good ideas |
According to the writer, if you always say yes, .
| A．your family members will love you more |
| B．your friends will soon get tired of you |
| C．people will expect you to do what they want you to do |
| D．you will have little chance of success in your life |
We can learn from the passage that the writer .
| A．seldom said no to people around him/her at one time |
| B．gets along badly with his/her boss and co-workers now |
| C．always makes his/her parents angry by refusing them |
| D．thinks it his/her own obligation to help those in need |
The high five (举手击掌) is very popular in today’s society. However, there was a time when people didn’t give it out to each other. The history of the high five isn’t very long. It’s even been said that the first high five was given out in a 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers game between Dusty Baker and Glen Burke as a way to celebrate Baker’s home run (本垒打).
After this first sighting of the high five in 1977, Derek Smith, a player on the 1980 Lousiville Cardinals basketball team, invented the actual “high five”, which the team used all throughout the season as a way to congratulate one another. After the Cardinals began to use the high five, more and more sports teams began to replace other popular celebratory gestures of the time, such as a pat on the back or the behind, with the high five.
As you can probably guess, it didn’t take long for the high five to make its way all across the sports scene and into the daily lives of every American who wanted a new and interesting way to congratulate or say hello to their friends, co-workers and family. The high five is here to stay and can be seen in more places and situations than ever before in history.
People use it in the bar, the gym, the office or sometimes on the street. No matter where you try to give a high five most people will happily give you a raised arm and a smile. But giving it in the right way is not easy. You need to have a basic understanding of the rules of giving the right high five.The high five had its origin in .
| A．a sports game | B．daily life |
| C．an exercise | D．a ceremony |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the second paragraph?
| A．Sports teams didn’t have celebratory gestures before 1977. |
| B．Derek Smith was the first to see the use of the high five. |
| C．The Cardinals helped make the high five popular. |
| D．Derek Smith was the captain of the Cardinals. |
What can we infer from the last but one paragraph?
| A．The high five means quite differently today. |
| B．The high five is mostly used among friends. |
| C．The high five may disappear in the future. |
| D．The high five is widely used today. |
What is most probably discussed in the paragraph that follows the passage?
| A．How to ask for a high five. |
| B．How to give a right high five. |
| C．The right places to give a high five. |
| D．The right person to give a high five to. |