Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商)with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to identify size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year—and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets—not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail（零售）buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping—big-box retailers especially —in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shopping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.Alibaba’s advantage mainly lies in ___________.
| A．its big size |
| B．its business-to-business service |
| C．its not charging small sellers |
| D．its low price |
What can we learn from the underlined sentence in the passage?
| A．Alibaba is of middle size among all the online sites |
| B．Alibaba will continue to develop. |
| C．Alibaba stands out as the best online site. |
| D．Alibaba acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers. |
What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
| A．a new store | B．Alibaba |
| C．a business | D．a foreign website |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The author’s Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover. |
| B．Taobao has no obvious advantage over other similar online sites. |
| C．Alibaba’s business-to-business service earns more money than retail now. |
| D．TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao. |
The Harvard Student-led Walking Tour
Let a student show you Harvard … on a free walking tour.
We welcome our neighbors to stop by the Harvard University Events & Information Center, located in the Holyoke Center Arcade at 1350 Massachusetts Avenue in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge.
Let a student take you and your family，school，or organization on an engaging，hour-long free historical tour of the Harvard campus．The tours leave from the Events & Information Center. Not only will you discover the location of fascinating exhibitions and programmes on campus，you will also see Harvard’s rich sampling of American history and architecture from the Colonial period to the present.
Schedule of Tours
Tours leave the Events ＆ Information Center at 10 am and 2 pm Monday through Friday, and at 2 pm on Saturday through the academic year（February 4 through May 2；September 23 through December 16）. Summer tours（June 24 through August 15）are offered at 10 am，11:15 am，2 pm，and 3：15 pm Monday through Saturday．Reservations for special tours of 20 or more people may be made by calling the Events & Information Center at（617）495—1573 or emailing icenter@camail. Harvard. edu. Tours are stopped March 23 through April 2 for Spring break，May 3 through June 23 for Spring intercession（祷告）, and August 16 through September 22 for Summer intercession．
NOTE：Prospective（未来的）students may take tours originating at the Harvard Admissions Office，located at Byerly Hall on 8 Garden Street in Cambridge．The Admissions staff will conduct information sessions．For more information，please call at（617）495—1551.
Harvard University Events & Information Center
Location：Holyoke Center Arcade，1350 Massachusetts Avenue，Cambridge MA 02138
Phone：（617）495—1573
1．If you want to join in a tour，you can go on______.
A．May 2 B．June 23 C．August 20 D．September 1
2．How can you book special tours of 20 people?
A．By calling at（617）495—1573
B．By calling at（617）495—1551
C．By visiting the Harvard Admissions Office．
D．By calling the Events & Information Center any time.
3．A student who wants an information session may_________for more information.
A．call（617）495—1573．
B．call（617）495—1551
C．email icenter@camail. Harvard.edu
D．go to the Events & Information Center
4．The above ads is mainly intended for__________.
A．foreign visitors B．high school students
C．new students in the university D．those living near Harvard University
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major cause of climate change, and now a new study has confirmed that atmospheric CO2 is also affecting the ocean chemistry and potentially harming sea life.
Montana State University scientist Robert Dore has been researching the water in the Pacific Ocean for almost two decades.
"We've been going to the same spot in the Pacific Ocean, and we try and characterize long-term change in the open ocean environment. And one of the key things that we measure is CO2 levels. And we've been able to record this increasing quantity of atmospheric CO2 into the ocean."
Scientists expected that as atmospheric CO2 increased, more and more of the carbon dioxide would be absorbed into the ocean, affecting the chemical balance of the sea water, with a potentially harmful impact on shellfish and coral in particular.
"As carbon dioxide dissolves（溶解） in the water, or seawater in this case, it forms a weak acid, carbonic acid," Dore explains. "And therefore, as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere goes up and that exchanges with the surface seawater, it drives the pH down, and makes it more acidic."
The seawater Dore and his colleagues have analyzed confirms what the theory predicts.
The effect was particular striking at about 250 meters down, and again at 500 meters. Dore and his colleagues came up with two possible explanations. It could be that surface water picked up CO2 and then moved to those depths. Or there could be a biological explanation.
"It's important to realize that the oceans are really becoming acidic. And it can have negative impacts on a whole variety of sea life from fish to coral. It's potentially catastrophic."
1．What can be the best title of the passage?
A．Sea Life Facing Danger B．Climate Change Affecting Seawater
C．Oceans Becoming More Acidic D．Scientist Researching Seawater
2．Which of the following shows the process of the impact of atmospheric CO2 on sea life?
a．Sea life is endangered．
b．CO2 goes into the surface water．
c．The ocean chemistry is affected．
d．CO2decreases the PH and makes the seawater more acidic．
e．CO2 levels in the atmosphere go up．
A. a → b → c → d → e
B. e → b --→ c → d → a
C. a → e -→ b → c → d
D. e → d -→ c → b → a
3．Scientist Robert Dore came to the conclusion based on .
A．his research and analysis
B．a major cause of climate change
C．some former theory
D．the expectation of other scientists
4．What does the passage want to tell us most?
A．It takes time to make a scientific study．
B．Atmospheric CO2 is doing harm to sea life．
C．Robert Dore is a committed and serious scientist．
D．Measures should be taken to prevent the potential catastrophe．
第二部分．阅读理解（共25小题。第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分满分45分）
第一节阅读下面五篇短文，从每题后所给的四个选项中选出最佳答案。
People with less education suffer fewer stressful days, according to a report in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
However, the study also found that when less-educated people did suffer stress it was more severe and had a stronger effect on their health.
From this, researchers have concluded that the day-to-day factors that cause stress are regular. Where you are in society determines the kinds of problems that you have each day, and how well you will cope with them.
The research team interviewed a national sample of 1, 031 adults daily for eight days about their stress level and health. People without a high school diploma reported stress on 30 percent of the study days, people with a high school degree reported stress 38 percent of the time, and people with college degrees reported stress 44 percent of the time.
“Less advantaged people are less healthy on a daily basis and are more likely to have downward turns in their health.” leading researcher, Dr. Joseph Grzywacz of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said in a prepared statement. “The downward turns in health were connected with daily stressors (紧张刺激物), and the effect of daily stressors on their health is much more damaging for the less advantaged. ”
“If something happens every day, maybe it’s not seen as a stressor.” Grzywacz says. “Maybe it is just life.”
1.Stress level is closely related to ___.
A. family size B. work experience
C. body weight D. social position
2.Which group reported the biggest number of stressful days?
A. People without any education.B. People without high school degrees.
C. People with high school degrees.D. People with college degrees.
3.The less advantaged people are, the greater .
A. the effect of stress on their health isB. the degree of their health concern is
C. the level of their education is D. the effect of education on their health is
4.Less-educated people report fewer days of stress possibly because .
A. they don’t want to tell truthB. they don’t want to face the truth
C. stress is too common a factor in their life D. their stress is much greater
EI've been writing for most of my life. The book Writing Without Teachers introduced me to one difference and one practice that have greatly helped my writing processes. The difference is between the creative mind and the critical mind. While you need to use both of the creative mind and the critical (批判) mind to reach a finished result，they cannot work in parallel (平行，并行) no matter how much we might like to think so.
Trying to criticize writing on the fly is possibly the single greatest trouble with writing that most of us meet. If you are listening to a 5th grade English teacher correcting your grammar while you are trying to capture a fleeting（稍纵即逝的）thought, the thought will die. If you catch the fleeting thought and simply share it with the world in raw form, no one is likely to understand. You must learn to create first and then criticize if you want to make writing the tool for thinking as it is.
The practice that can help you overcome your learned bad habits of trying to edit as you write is what Elbow calls“free writing”. In free writing, the goal is to get words down on paper non-stop，usually for 15-20 minutes. No stopping, no going back, no criticizing. The aim is to get the words flowing. As the words begin to flow，the ideas will come from the shadows and let themselves be captured on your notepad or your screen.
Now you have raw materials that you can begin to work with using the critical mind that you’ve persuaded to sit on the side and watch quietly. Most likely，you will believe that this will take more time than you actually have and you will end up staring blankly at the pages as the deadline draws near.
Instead of staring at a blank start and filling it with words no matter how bad they could be，stop halfway through your available time and rework your raw writing into something closer to the finished product. Move back and forth until you run out of time and the final result will most likely be far better than your current practices.
1. When the author says the creative mind and the critical mind“cannot work in parallel”in the writing process，he means _______.
A. no one can be both creative and critical
B. they can’t be regarded as equally important
C. they are in constant conflict with each other
D. one cannot use them at the same time
2. What usually prevents people from writing on is _______.
A. putting their ideas in raw form B. attempting to edit as they’re writing
C. ignoring grammatical problems D. trying to capture their fleeting thoughts
3. What is the chief purpose of the first stage of writing？
A. To organize one’s thoughts logically. B. To choose an appropriate topic.
C. To get one’s ideas down quickly. D. To collect many more raw materials.
4. In what way does the critical mind help the writer in the writing process？
A. It refines(improves) his writing into a better shape.
B. It helps him to come up with new ideas.
C. It saves the writing time available to him.
D. It allows him to sit on the side and observe.
You’re in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation：
“I can’t believe it—a Lorenzo Betrolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn’t it beautiful？And it’s a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome”.
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It’s nice and the price is right. You’ve never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So，you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool，the product seems cool，too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don’t pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation—consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don’t trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative.“Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing”.
However，one might ask what exactly is “real” about the young women pretending to be enthusiastic about a sweater. Advertising executives (主管) would say it’s no less real than flu ad. The difference is that you know an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. You don’ t know a conversation you overhear is just a performance.
1. The two attractive young women were talking so that they could _______.
A. get the sweater at a lower price B. be heard by people around
C. be admired by other shoppers D. decide on buying the sweater
2. Lorenzo Bertolla is _______.
A. a very popular male singer B. an advertising agency
C. a clothing company in Rome D. the brand name of a sweater
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage？
A. The two girls are in fact employed by the Lorenzo Bertolla Company.
B. The MTV generation tends to be more easily influenced by ads.
C. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective because it’s too direct.
D. Undercover marketing will surely be banned soon by the government.
4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text？
A. Two Attractive Shoppers B. Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters
C. Ways of Advertising D. Undercover Marketing