People have grown taller over the last century, with South Korean women shooting up by more than 20cm on average, and Iranian men gaining 16.5cm. A global study looked at the average height of 18-year-olds in 200 countries between 1914 and 2014. The results reveal that while Swedes were the tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men have risen from 12th place to claim top spot with an average height of 182. 5cm. Latvian women, meanwhile, rose from 28th place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world a century later, with an average height of 169.8cm. James Bentham, a co-author of the research from Imperial College, London, says the global trend is likely to be due primarily to improvements in nutrition and healthcare. “ An individual’s genetics has a big influence on their height, but once you average over whole populations, genetics plays a less key role,“ he added. A little extra height brings a number of advantages, says Elio Riboli of Imperial College. “Being taller is associated with longer life expectancy,“ he said. “This is largely due to a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular (心血管的) disease among taller people. “ But while height has increased around the world, the trend in many countries of north and sub-Saharan Africa causes concern, says Riboli. While height increased in Uganda and Niger during the early 20th century, the trend has reversed in recent years, with height decreasing among 18-year-olds. “One reason for these decreases in height is the economic situation in the 1980s,“ said Alexander Moradi of the University of Sussex. The nutritional and health crises that followed the policy of structural adjustment, he says, led to many children and teenagers failing to reach their full potential in terms of height. Bentham believes the global trend of increasing height has important implications. “How tall we are now is strongly influenced by the environment we grew up in,“ he said. “ If we give children the best possible start in life now, they will be healthier and more productive for decades to come. “

My name is Brendan Leonard and I’m an author, magazine writer, filmmaker and public speaker. I’m self-employed, which means I work for myself and I do what I love. We have a popular saying in America which goes, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” But I’m here to tell you that instead of focusing on doing what we love, I think we should focus on loving what we do. In my line of work, you hear a lot about talent, which is an idea we’ve mostly invented to give ourselves an excuse to be lazy. Here’s why: if you see someone doing something really well, you would say it’s because they’re talented. You think they’re somehow special. You discount the tremendous amount of work they’ve done to get to where they are. Research has shown that talent is nothing without hard work. I choose to believe in hard work, but not so much in talent. There are no special people, just people who put in enough hard work until something special happens. I can promise you one thing: whatever you choose to do for a career, if you work hard at it, eventually, special things will happen. They may not happen as quickly as you’d like them to, and they may turn out to be completely different from the special things you imagined at the beginning, but they will happen. Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard. 19. What do we learn about the speaker? 20. What is the speaker’s advice to his audience? 21. What does the speaker say about talent? He is self-employed. He is a career advisor. He studies talent. He owns a magazine.

Just because they can’t sing opera or ride a bicycle doesn’t mean that animals don’t have culture. There’s no better example of this than killer whales. As one of the most【C1】______predators (食肉动物), killer whales may not fit the【C2】______of a cultured creature. However, these beasts of the sea do display a vast range of highly【C3】______behaviors that appear to be driving their genetic development. The word “ culture“ comes from the Latin “ colere,“ which【C4】______means “ to cultivate. “ In other words, it refers to anything that is【C5】______or learnt, rather than instinctive or natural. Among human populations, culture not only affects the way we live, but also writes itself into our genes, affecting who we are. For instance, having spent many generations hunting the fat marine mammals of the Arctic, the Eskimos of Greenland have developed certain genetic【C6】______that help them digest and utilize this fat-rich diet, thereby allowing them to【C7】______in their cold climate. Like humans, killer whales have colonized a range of different【C8】______across the globe, occupying every ocean basin on the planet with an empire that【C9】______from pole to pole. As such, different populations of killer whales have had to learn different hunting techniques in order to gain the upper hand over their local prey (猎物). This, in turn, has a major effect on their diet, leading scientists to【C10】______that the ability to learn population-specific hunting methods could be driving the animals’genetic development. A) acquired I) image B) adaptations J) literally C) brutal K) refined D) deliberately L) revolves E) expressed M) speculate F) extends N) structure G) habitats O) thrive F) extends N) structure H) humble

Living with parents edges out other living arrangements for 18- to 34-year-olds A) Broad demographic (人口的) shifts in marital status, educational attainment and employment have transformed the way young adults in the U. S. are living, and a new Pew Research Center analysis highlights the implications of these changes for the most basic element of their lives— where they call home. In 2014, for the first time in more than 130 years, adults ages 18 to 34 were slightly more likely to be living in their parents’ home than they were to be living with a spouse or partner in their own household. B) This turn of events is fueled primarily by the dramatic drop in the share of young Americans who are choosing to settle down romantically before age 35. Dating back to 1880, the most common living arrangement among young adults has been living with a romantic partner, whether a spouse or a significant other. This type of arrangement peaked around 1960, when 62% of the nation’s 18- to 34-year-olds were living with a spouse or partner in their own household, and only one-in-flve were living with their parents. C) By 2014, 31.6% of young adults were living with a spouse or partner in their own household, below the share living in the home of their parent(s) (32.1%). Some 14% of young adults lived alone, were a single parent or lived with one or more roommates. The remaining 22% lived in the home of another family member (such as a grandparent, in-law or sibling (兄弟姐妹), a non-relative , or in group quarters like college dormitories. D) It’s worth noting that the overall share of young adults living with their parents was not at a record high in 2014. This arrangement peaked around 1940, when about 35% of the nation’s 18- to 34-year-olds lived with mom and/or dad (compared with 32% in 2014). What has changed, instead, is the relative share adopting different ways of living in early adulthood, with the decline of romantic coupling pushing living at home to the top of a much less uniform list of living arrangements. E) Among young adults, living arrangements differ significantly by gender. For men aged 18 to 34, living at home with mom and/or dad has been the dominant living arrangement since 2009. In 2014, 28% of young men were living with a spouse or partner in their own home, while 35% were living in the home of their parent(s). Young women, however, are still more likely to be living with a spouse or romantic partner (35%) than they are to be living with their parent (s) (29%). F) In 2014, more young women (16%) than young men (13%) were heading up a household without a spouse or partner. This is mainly because women are more likely than men to be single parents living with their children. For their part, young men (25%) are more likely than young women (19%) to be living in the home of another family member, a non-relative or in some type of group quarters. G) A variety of factors contribute to the long-run increase in the share of young adults living with their parents. The first is the postponement of, if not retreat from, marriage. The average age of first marriage has risen steadily for decades. In addition, a growing share of young adults may be avoiding marriage altogether. A previous Pew Research Center analysis projected that as many as one-in-four of today’s young adults may never marry. While cohabitation (同居) has been on the rise, the overall share of young adults either married or living with an unmarried partner has substantially fallen since 1990. H) In addition, trends in both employment status and wages have likely contributed to the growing share of young adults who are living in the home of their parent (s), and this is especially true of young men. Employed young men are much less likely to live at home than young men without a job, and employment among young men has fallen significantly in recent decades. The share of young men with jobs peaked around 1960 at 84% . In 2014, only 71% of 18- to 34-year-old men were employed. Similarly with earnings, young men’s wages (after adjusting for inflation) have been on a downward trajectory (轨迹) since 1970 and fell significantly from 2000 to 2010. As wages have fallen, the share of young men living in the home of their parent(s) has risen. I) Economic factors seem to explain less of why young adult women are increasingly likely to live at home. Generally, young women have had growing success in the paid labor market since 1960 and hence might increasingly be expected to be able to afford to live independently of their parents. For women, delayed marriage—which is related, in part, to labor market outcomes for men—may explain more of the increase in their living in the family home. J) The Great Recession (and modest recovery) has also been associated with an increase in young adults living at home. Initially in the wake of the recession, college enrollments expanded, boosting the ranks of young adults living at home. And given the weak job opportunities facing young adults, living at home was part of the private safety net helping young adults to weather the economic storm. K) Beyond gender, young adults’ living arrangements differ considerably by education—which is tied to financial means. For young adults without a bachelor’s degree, as of 2008 living at home with their parents was more prevalent than living with a romantic partner. By 2014, 36% of 18- to 34-year-olds who had not completed a bachelor’s degree were living with their parent(s) while 27% were living with a spouse or partner. Among college graduates, in 2014 46% were married or living with a partner, and only 19% were living with their parents (s). Young adults with a college degree have fared much better in the labor market than their less-educated counterparts, which has in turn made it easier to establish their own households.

France is facing potentially more than $1 billion in lost revenue this year due to huge declines in tourism. Safety concerns have been one of the biggest reasons why the country has lost over half a billion in revenue already in the first six months of 2016. The terror attacks in Paris last November were called Europe’s worst in the past decade. Besides violence, workers’ strikes and heavy floods are said to have also been why international tourists have stayed away. So far in the Paris region, there’s been a 46% decline in Japanese visitors, 35% fewer Russians and 27% fewer Italians. American travelers seem the least affected. Their numbers have only dropped by roughly 5%. According to the French government, the country is the No. 1 tourist destination in the world, and tourism is extremely important to the French economy. The sector represents roughly 9% of its GDP. The head of Paris Tourism Board said, “It’s time to realize that the tourism sector is going through an industrial disaster.” Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard. 1. What accounts most for the huge declines in tourism in France? 2. What do we learn from the report about tourism in France? Heavy floods. Safety concerns. Bad economy. Workers’ strikes.

A small plane with two sick US workers arrived safely in Chile late Wednesday after leaving Antarctica in a daring rescue mission from a remote South Pole research station. After making a stop for a few hours at a British station on the edge of Antarctica, the two workers were flown to the southernmost Chilean city of Punta Arenas. In a chaotic two days of flying, the rescue team flew 3,000 miles roundtrip from the British station Rothera to pick up the workers at the US Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole. “The two patients aboard will be transported to a medical facility that can provide a level of care that is not available at Amundsen-Scott,” says a spokesperson. Normally planes don’t go to the polar post from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch-dark and cold. “Antarctica creates a hostile environment,” says the operations director for the British Antarctic Survey. “If you’re not careful, it’ll come round and bite you.” Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard. 3. What was the small plane’s mission to Antarctica? 4. What makes flying to Antarctica dangerous from February to October? To carry out a scientific survey. To establish a new research station. To rescue two sick American workers. To deliver urgent medical supplies.

M: Hi, Emily, I hear you are leaving for Italy soon. Do you plan to have a going-away party before you disappear? It’d be really nice for us to hang out together before you go. W: I’m not sure. I’m leaving in just two more days, and I’m going to miss all my friends here and especially this place. Why don’t you come over? I’m feeling rather sad, actually. I’m currently sitting alone at a table outside the Black Cat Cafe, listening to the rain and watching people passing by. M: I’m sorry. I can’t just now. I need to get this assignment finished by Monday, and I’m way behind. Anyhow, cheer up. You’re not leaving for good, and you’ll absolutely love Italy. W: Yeah, you’re right. But I just feel like I’m not quite ready to go. And studying in a foreign country seems a bit overwhelming. M: Just think of your life in Milan. In the mornings, you can go down to a small local cafe, soaking up the sun’s rays and drinking coffee. I envy you. You can buy lots of gorgeous Italian clothes. W: That does sound nice. And of course I can keep in touch with everyone through Facebook. Maybe you can all come visit me. M: Of course we will. When is your flight? W: On Saturday, after lunch, at 1:45. M: Okay, I’ll try and come to the airport on Saturday to see you off. I’ll give you a call that morning no matter what. Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 12. What is the woman going to do? 13. How does the woman feel at the moment? 14. Why can’t the man meet the woman now? 15. What will the man possibly do on Saturday? Vacation in Italy. Study abroad. Throw a farewell party. Go to a fashion show in Milan.

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. The mountain has been in a state of near continuous eruption for half a million years. Exploring the Etna geographical area reveals a history written in fire. Before the eruptions, it was covered by forests of pine trees. Located in southern Italy, Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe. However, its height often changes when volcanic material accumulates during eruptions and subsequently collapses. Few volcanoes in the world have an eruption history so thoroughly documented by historical records— Etna’s eruption history dates back as far as 1500 BC. Some 200 eruptions have been recorded down through the centuries, but compared with other volcanoes, most of its eruptions have so far been fairly light in terms of death and destruction. Only about 100 deaths have been attributed to the volcano. The mountain hasn’t been entirely harmless, however; in 1928 it destroyed the town of Mascali. Over the centuries, Etna’s lower slopes have been shaped by human hands to take advantage of rich soils for growing grapes, apples and nuts. Local people have also carved out over 200 caves in the soft rock and used them for everything from sacred burial places to food storage. Large mammals once wandered the volcano’s slopes, but today foxes, wild cats, rabbits and mice are more common. Some of those small mammals help to sustain such big birds as golden eagles. Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard. 16. What does the speaker say about Mount Etna? 17. What do we learn about the lower slopes of Mount Etna? 18. What does the speaker say about big birds like golden eagles at Mount Etna? It has kept growing over the centuries. Its top is hidden in clouds of volcanic smoke. Its height changes with each volcanic eruption. It has a recorded history of 1,500 years.

A question we often ask others and are also frequently asked by others is “What do you normally do after school or work?” Some commonplace answers are, “Well, I go to the gym.” “Umm, I just go home and watch TV.” “I meet my friends for dinner.” or “I just go to bed because it’s so late and I’m tired.” Unlike any of these typical responses, I’m proud to say that I love to dance Salsa after a long and tiring day of work. Salsa is a kind of dancing that evolved in the mid-1970s in New York. My dancing life began not because I wanted to do it, but because my mother was sick and tired of seeing me running around after school doing nothing. So she enrolled me into a ballet course when I was six. I fell in love with it instantly and continued with ballet dancing for about 10 years. Then I left my native country of New Zealand to start my career as an English teacher, which eventually brought my dancing life to a halt. It wasn’t until I rediscovered Salsa in a lovely studio while working in Asia that I renewed my passion for dancing. Since then I have been trying to attend dancing classes twice a week after work. It’s a great way for me to relieve stress and pressure, and dance my way towards feeling energetic and happy again. Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard. 22. What does the speaker say about the dance Salsa? 23. Why did the speaker’s mother enroll her in a ballet course? 24. When did the speaker’s dancing life come to a halt? 25. In what way has Salsa dancing benefited the speaker? It is a bit difficult to learn. It was popular in New Zealand. It is a traditional type of ballet. It evolved in the mid-1970s.

According to the majority of Americans, women are every bit as capable of being good political leaders as men. The same can be said of their ability to dominate the corporate boardroom. And according to a new Pew Research Center survey on women and leadership, most Americans find women indistinguishable from men on key leadership traits such as intelligence and capacity for innovation, with many saying they’re stronger than men in terms of being passionate and organized leaders. So why, then, are women in short supply at the top of government and business in the United States? According to the public, at least, it’s not that they lack toughness, management talent or proper skill sets. It’s also not all about work-life balance. Although economic research and previous survey findings have shown that career interruptions related to motherhood may make it harder for women to advance in their careers and compete for top executive jobs, relatively few adults in the recent survey point to this as a key barrier for women seeking leadership roles. Only about one-in-five say women’s family responsibilities are a major reason why there aren’t more females in top leadership positions in business and politics. Instead, topping the list of reasons, about four-in-ten Americans point to a double standard for women seeking to climb to the highest levels of either politics or business, where they have to do more than their male counterparts to prove themselves. Similar shares say the electorate (选民) and corporate America are just not ready to put more women in top leadership positions. As a result, the public is divided about whether the imbalance in corporate America will change in the foreseeable future, even though women have made major advances in the workplace. While 53% believe men will continue to hold more top executive positions in business in the future, 44% say it’s only a matter of time before as many women are in top executive positions as men. Americans are less doubtful when it comes to politics: 73% expect to see a female president in their lifetime.

People have grown taller over the last century, with South Korean women shooting up by more than 20cm on average, and Iranian men gaining 16.5cm. A global study looked at the average height of 18-year-olds in 200 countries between 1914 and 2014. The results reveal that while Swedes were the tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men have risen from 12th place to claim top spot with an average height of 182. 5cm. Latvian women, meanwhile, rose from 28th place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world a century later, with an average height of 169.8cm. James Bentham, a co-author of the research from Imperial College, London, says the global trend is likely to be due primarily to improvements in nutrition and healthcare. “ An individual’s genetics has a big influence on their height, but once you average over whole populations, genetics plays a less key role,“ he added. A little extra height brings a number of advantages, says Elio Riboli of Imperial College. “Being taller is associated with longer life expectancy,“ he said. “This is largely due to a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular (心血管的) disease among taller people. “ But while height has increased around the world, the trend in many countries of north and sub-Saharan Africa causes concern, says Riboli. While height increased in Uganda and Niger during the early 20th century, the trend has reversed in recent years, with height decreasing among 18-year-olds. “One reason for these decreases in height is the economic situation in the 1980s,“ said Alexander Moradi of the University of Sussex. The nutritional and health crises that followed the policy of structural adjustment, he says, led to many children and teenagers failing to reach their full potential in terms of height. Bentham believes the global trend of increasing height has important implications. “How tall we are now is strongly influenced by the environment we grew up in,“ he said. “ If we give children the best possible start in life now, they will be healthier and more productive for decades to come. “

灯笼起源于东汉，最初主要用于照明。在唐代，人们用红灯笼来庆祝安定的生活。从那时起，灯笼在中国的许多地方流行起来。灯笼通常用色彩鲜艳的薄纸制作，形状和尺寸各异。在中国传统文化中，红灯笼象征生活美满和生意兴隆，通常在春节、元宵节和国庆等节日期间悬挂。如今，世界上许多其他地方也能看到红灯笼。

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a news report to your campus newspaper on a visit to a Hope elementary school organized by your Student Union. You should write at least 120 words out no more than 180 words.

A pilot from Virginia removed his son’s loose tooth using a helicopter. Rick Rahim, from Virginia, flies helicopters for a living, and when his seven-year-old son’s tooth became loose, he did not waste time by tying it to a door handle. Instead, Mr. Rahim tied one end of a string around his son’s tooth and the other end to his full-sized commercial helicopter. The father of four posted a video clip of his playful venture on Facebook, advising parents to do fun and creative stuff with their kids. The video shows him launching the helicopter into the air and flying just far enough to successfully remove the loose tooth. At the end of the video, Mr. Rahim assures watchers that the circumstances were safe, and that he has 13 years of helicopter flying experience behind him. “You’ve got to do everything safe in life, and that’s what I did today,” he said. Mr. Rahim later said that although some parents have used remote control helicopters to pull teeth before, he might be the first to use a full-sized aircraft, as he can’t find evidence that it has been done before. Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard. 5. How did Rick Rahim remove his son’s loose tooth? 6. What does the news report say about Rick Rahim? 7. What did Rick Rahim advise parents to do with their kids? By tying it to a door handle. By shaking it back and forth. With a remote control craft. With a full-sized helicopter.

W: Hi, Emma’s speaking. Who’s this? M: Hi, Emma. I’m Paul from Emingl’s delivery service. Here is a package for you. Are you at home to collect it? W: Oh, sorry, Paul. I’m out at the moment. Can you put it in my mailbox? M: I’m afraid I can’t do that. Sorry. The package is too big and it needs a signature to confirm you have received it, so I would need to deliver it at a time when you are in. W: Okay, well, I’m out all day today, but I should be in tomorrow morning before I go out for lunch. And then I’ll be at home again later in the afternoon. Will either of those times be convenient for you? M: They’re not unfortunately. I’m sorry. I won’t be in the area tomorrow as I have some other deliveries to make on the other side of town. I could come the day after if that suits you. W: Okay. Yes, that should be fine. I have a friend coming round in the afternoon, but I’ll be at home. So the day after tomorrow will be great. Do I need to pay for the package? M: No, you don’t. It says here that you paid for it when you ordered it online. W: Oh, yes, I did. I got mixed up. M: So you just need to sign the form to say you’ve received it. W: Okay, great. See you the day after tomorrow then. M: Yes, see you then. Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 8. Why is the man making the phone call? 9. Why can’t the woman meet the man today? 10. Why is the man unable to see the woman tomorrow? 11. What should the woman do to receive her purchase? To confirm an urgent appointment. To collect a package from the woman. To ask the woman to sign a document. To arrange the delivery of a package.

What does the global study tell us about people’s height in the last hundred years?

What does James Bentham say about genetics in the increase of people’s height?

What does Elio Riboli say about taller people?

What do we learn about 18-year-olds in Uganda and Niger?

What does James Bentham suggest we do?