States are considering major changes in prepaid college tuition programs - raising prices, restricting participation of canceling them - as they grapple with financial woes. Nationwide, families will likely have to pay more to participate, or accept that they might not cover tuition when children go to college.
Colorado has closed its prepaid plan to new investors and told existing ones that it may not cover future tuition increases. Wisconsin stopped selling its plan Dec. 20. Maryland and Illinois are among states hiking prices by 20% or more.
Prepaid plans let parents lock in tuition by paying for it now, protecting them against rising costs. But the hear market has hurt investment returns, leaving the plans unable to keep up with big increases in tuition. So far, Colorado is the only state that has told participants their investments may not cover tuition, and no plan has missed a payment.
Other states have said they will fulfill obligations, even if it requires a legislative bailout. Still, the financial problems have forced thousands to grapple with uncertainty - something prepaid plans were designed to avoid. More than 1 million families have an estimated $ 8 billion invested in the plans, says ＜ Saving for College. com ＞.
Some states, including Colorado, may replace the prepaid plan with a guaranteed investment contract, a CD-like investment that"s backed by an insurance company. Investors get a minimum rate of return, but no guarantee that it will cover tuition.
Wisconsin"s EdVest program is encouraging investment in a stable value fund, which is similar to a guaranteed investment contract, in its investment plan. Wisconsin"s prepaid plan never guaranteed to cover tuition inflation. It also never got a lot of investors, possibly because it lacked that guarantee.
In Florida, a task force is considering limiting the state"s prepaid program to low-income families. Ohio officials are also looking at limiting participation, but it"s a measure they hope to avoid. "Program administrators are looking for alternatives," says Andrea Feirstein, a state-plan consultant.
Maryland recently boosted its prices by up to 30%; Illinois by up to 23%. The increases have made some prepaid plans uneconomical for parents of older children. In Ohio, the price of one year"s tuition for a child over 12 months old is $ 8, 000, more than 40% above current tuition at Ohio State. SO it may not be a good deal for children starting college in three or four years because tuition may not jump that much that fast.

1. 
Prepaid college tuition is generally designed on the principle that ______.

A it is easy to pay at the present time

B it is economical in the long run

C it saves pains to pass the entrance exam

D it ensures the admission to the college

2. 
Many states plan to modify their prepaid college tuition programs ______.

A under the mounting financial pressures

B because of deficient college facilities

C to ease overcrowding problems in college

D to limit the participation of low-income families

3. 
The word "investors" (in boldface in Paragraph 2) most exactly refers to those who ______.

A serve as the main source of finance to the state

B invest money in developing local colleges

C sponsor colleges and their educational programs

D join the plan and pay the tuition in advance

4. 
Colorado now has told participants in the prepaid tuition plan that ______.

A they would not have to make any other payment later

B they would not be guaranteed against further payment

C the plan would cover further tuition increases

D the plan would be replaced by a guaranteed investment contract

5. 
The expression "a CD-like investment" (in boldface in Paragraph 5) most probably refers to an investment ______.

A to support civil defense

B put in producing compact disc

C to promote show industry

D like certificate deposit

6. 
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that in Ohio ______.

A prepaid plans require a participation at most 3 or 4 years before starting college

B children may start college 3 or 4 years earlier than at a normal age if they prepay tuition

C college tuition 3 or 4 years later may not be so high as today"s price of prepaid tuition

D the younger a child to join the plan, the greater loss he/she will suffer at the age for college

All art booms are different. The previous one ended in 1989, when Japanese buyers withdrew from the Impressionist market. Interest rates rose in the slump that followed; there were plenty of sellers but no buyers. Today the reverse is true. Buyers are looking to diversify into alternative assets. The only problem is the sellers. There is plenty of money, but little to buy.
It should follow, then, that buyers will snap up anything. But that is not quite the case, as the Old Master sales at Christie"s in London on December 8th showed only too well. In the recent sales the best pieces sold brilliantly, and the rest hardly at all. The best included a rare Raphael drawing, and an elegant self-portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck. Many of the leading dealers were present, including Philip Mould, known as the BBC"s "art detective;" Alfred Bader, a rich American art-market broker; and the heirs to two important art-dealing businesses, William Noortman and Simon Green.
Van Dyck"s oval shaped self-portrait, painted in 1640, the year before he died, had been in the same family for almost 300 years. Mr. Mould joined forces with Mr. Bader to try and win the painting. Young Mr. Noortman, the under bidder who was trying to buy the picture for stock, did not stand a chance. The winning bid was ￡7.4m, nearly three times van Dyck"s previous auction record.
The last lot in Christie"s sale was a black chalk drawing, less than a foot square, by Raphael, an early 16th-century Italian master. It is the study of a head for one of the Greek muses. Its beauty, rarity and the sense that the study may well have been used by the artist himself when working on a larger painting drew collectors from far and wide.
Christie"s had estimated the study would fetch ￡12m-16m. Bidding opened at ￡8.5m, with three buyers on the telephone. Jennifer Wright, Christie"s New York-based drawings specialist, made a final bid for the Raphael of if 26m—a world record for a work on paper.
After the sale, Christie"s international co-head, Richard Knight, was quick to point out that, at ￡ 68.4m, theirs had been the biggest Old Master sale ever. "This result shows what a very solid market this is," he said. But that took no account of the failures, which were considerable. 15 of the 43 lots in Christie"s auction failed to sell at all.

1. 
Unlike 1989, today, the art market is characterized by an increase of ______.

A sales

B prices

C buyers

D supplies

2. 
Christie"s sale showed that ______.

A many of the paintings were left on the shelf

B portraits were in greater demand than others

C buyers all found their favorite pieces

D sellers worried little about selling their lots

3. 
The self-portrait of Sir Anthony van Dyck was ______.

A kept in one home for three centuries

B once sold for about 2

C put up for auction for the first time

D won by two American art dealers

4. 
Raphael"s drawing at the sale was undoubtedly ______.

A the portrait of the artist himself

B the part of a larger painting

C the copy of a Greek sculpture

D the only one in the world

5. 
According to the passage, the ￡ 26m for the Raphael was most probably unexpected by ______.

A Alfred Bader

B Jennifer Wright

C Richard Knight

D Simon Green

6. 
It can safely be concluded that the Old Master sale mentioned ______.

A reflected a very solid market

B had both wins and losses

C turned out to be a total failure

D sold more works than any other auctions

On the outside, Betsy Lueth"s school looks like any other in this arty neighborhood of Minneapolis: a sprawling, boxy red brick building with plain steel doors. Yet inside, the blond, friendly Minnesotan presides over an institution unique in the heartland: Yinghua Academy, a chartered public school where elementary students of every ethnicity study subjects ranging from math to American history in Mandarin.
The idea behind Yinghua, as with many immersion programs, is to introduce kids to the language and culture as early as possible—ideally, before age 12, while they"re still absorbing information like sponges. Kindergartners and first-graders are taught exclusively in Mandarin, and a single period of English is introduced in the second grade. By the sixth grade, kids are learning half in English and half in Mandarin, with the expectation of proficiency in both.
The challenges at Yinghua are numerous. Most teachers come from Taiwan or mainland of China, and cultural misunderstandings prevail. Lueth"s instructors are learning to be tolerant of local norms like nontraditional families and boys who cry—as well as a lot more parental input than they"re used to. "In China, teachers are revered. They are not questioned," says Luyi Lien, Yinghua"s Taiwan-born academic director. "In America, parents are more expressive of their opinions. "
Yinghua"s student body, once 70% Asian, is now 50% white, black or Hispanic. The school has more than tripled its enrollment, to 300 kids, many of whom commute an hour each day. Research has shown that in the long run, immersion programs can provide cognitive benefits, including more flexible, creative thinking. Though students from the programs lag for a few years in English, by the fifth grade they perform as well as or better than their monolingual peers on standardized reading and math tests. For multicultural families, the psychological boost can also be important. Lueth"s adopted daughter, Lucy, used to squirm when cousins asked why her skin color was different from theirs. Now, Lucy proudly answers them, "Yeah, I was born in China. "
Lueth recently won an $800,000 grant from the Department of Education to develop a teaching model for immersion middle schools, and she advises educators around the country who are starting their own programs. If Yinghua can make Mandarin a success in Minnesota, so can they. "This is a glorious culture and an increasingly important language that we are meaningfully teaching to our children. And we"re in the middle of nowhere. "

1. 
According to the passage, Yinghua Academy is ______.

A an English language school for immigrants

B a high rise sticking out in the neighborhood

C a grade school with students of different races

D a unique institution with an Asian owner

2. 
In comparison with their counterparts in other schools around, Yinghua"s twelve-year-old Asian children would most probably be ______.

A better at Western culture

B more proficient in English

C better at acquiring knowledge

D more bilingually competent

3. 
Most instructors at Yinghua are trying to adapt themselves to the local parents who are ______.

A soft with their children

B unafraid to be critical

C as stubborn as mule

D respectful of nobody

4. 
According to the research, students from Yinghua will be more creative in thinking because ______.

A they are taught there not only in English

B they are not only learning languages there

C they were not only born to White parents

D they were raised not only nearby the school

5. 
Which word can best describe Lucy?

A Self-conscious

B Self-assertive

C Self-confident

D Self-important

6. 
In regard to the teaching of Mandarin, Lueth believes that Yinghua ______.

A has still a long way to go

B deserves financial rewards

C plays a leading role in the US

D shows what can be done anywhere

Advertising is paid, nonpersonal communication that is designed to communicate in a creative manner, through the use of mass or information-directed media, the nature of products, services, and ideas. It is a form of persuasive communication that offers information about products, ideas, and services that serves the objectives determined by the advertiser. 1 Thus, the ultimate objective of advertising is to sell things persuasively and creatively. Advertising is used by commercial firms trying to sell products and services; by politicians and political interest groups to sell ideas or persuade voters; by not-for-profit organizations to raise funds, solicit volunteers, or influence the actions of viewers; and by governments seeking to encourage or discourage particular activities, such a wearing seatbelts, participating in the census, or ceasing to smoke. 2
The visual and verbal commercial messages that are a part of advertising are intended to attract attention and produce some response by the viewer. Advertising is pervasive and virtually impossible to escape. Newspapers and magazines often have more advertisements than copy; radio and television provide entertainment but are also laden with advertisements; advertisements pop up on Internet sites; and the mail brings a variety of advertisements. 3 In shopping malls, there are prominent logos on designer clothes, moviegoers regularly view advertisements for local restaurants, hair salons, and so on, and live sporting and cultural events often include signage, logos, products, and related information about the event sponsors. 4
Although the primary objective of advertising is to persuade, it may achieve this objective in many different ways. An important function of advertising is the identification function , that is, to identify a product and differentiate it from others; this creates an awareness of the product and provides a basis for consumers to choose the advertised product over other products. 5 The third function of advertising is to induce consumers to try new products and to suggest reuse of the product as well as new uses; this is the persuasion function.
A. Another function of advertising is to communicate information about the product, its attributes, and its location of sale, this is the information function.
B. The forms that advertising takes and the media in which advertisements appear are as varied as the advertisers themselves and the messages that they wish to deliver.
C. An especially important issue in the creation of advertising is related to understanding how much information consumers want about a given product.
D. Advertising may influence consumers in many different ways, but the primary goal of advertising is to increase the probability that consumers exposed to an advertisement will behave or believe as the advertiser wishes.
E. Advertising also exists on billboards along the freeway, in subway and train stations, on benches at bus stops, and on the frames around car license plates.
F. The pervasiveness of advertising and its creative elements are designed to cause viewers to take note.

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

No single element has tantalized and tormented the human imagination more than the shimmering metal known by the chemical symbol Au. For thousands of years the desire to possess gold has driven people to extremes, fueling wars and conquests, girding empires and currencies, leveling mountains and forests. 1 Yet its chief virtues—its unusual density and malleability along with its imperishable shine—have made it one of the world"s most coveted commodities, a transcendent symbol of beauty, wealth, and immortality. From pharaohs (who insisted on being buried in what they called the "flesh of the golds") to the forty-niners (whose mad rush for the mother lode built the American West) to the financiers (who, following Sir Isaac Newton"s advice, made it the bedrock of the global economy); 2
Humankind"s feverish attachment to gold shouldn"t have survived the modern world. Few cultures still believe that gold can give eternal life, and every country in the world—the United States was last, in 1971—has done away with the gold standard. 3 The price of gold, which stood at $ 271 an ounce on September 10, 2001, hit $1,023in March 2008, and it may surpass that threshold again. Aside from extravagance, gold is still continuing to play its role as a safe haven in perilous times. 4 In 2007 demand outstripped mine production by 59 percent. "Gold has always had this kind of magic," says Peter L. Bernstein, author of The Power of Gold. "But it"s never been clear if we have gold or gold has us. "
While investors flock to new gold-backed funds, jewelry still accounts for two-thirds of the demand, generating a record $53.5 billion in worldwide sales in 2007. 5 However, such concerns don"t ruffle the biggest consumer nations, namely India, where a gold obsession is woven into the culture, and China, which leaped past the U.S. in 2007 to become the world"s second largest buyer of gold jewelry.
A. But gold"s luster (光泽) not only endures; fueled by global uncertainty, it grows stronger.
B. Gold is not vital to human existence; it has, in fact, relatively few practical uses.
C. In the U. S. an activist-driven "No Dirty Gold" campaign has persuaded many top jewelry retailers to stop selling gold from mines that cause severe social or environmental damage.
D. Nearly every society through the ages has invested gold with an almost mythological power.
E. For all of its allure, gold"s human and environmental toll has never been so steep. Part of the challenge, as well as the fascination, is that there is so little of it.
F. Gold"s recent surge, sparked in part by the terrorist attack on 9/11, has been amplified by the slide of the U. S. dollar and jitters over a looming global recession.

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

There are so many new books about dying that there are now special shelves set aside for them in bookshops, along with the health-diet and home-repair paperbacks. Some of them are so 21 with detailed information and step-by-step instructions for performing the function, that you"d think this was a new sort of 22 which all of us are now required to learn. The strongest impression the casual reader gets is that proper dying has become an extraordinary, 23 an exotic experience, something only the specially trained can do.
24 , you could be led to believe that we are the only 25 capable of being aware of death, and that when the rest of nature is experiencing the life cycle and dying, one generation after 26 , it is a different kind of process, done automatically and trivially, or more "natural", as we say.
An elm in our backyard 27 the blight (枯萎病) this summer and dropped stone dead, leafless, almost overnight. One weekend 28 was a normal-looking elm, maybe a little bare in spots but 29 alarming, and the next weekend it was gone, passed over, departed, taken. Taken is right, for the tree surgeon came by yesterday with his 30 of young helpers and their cherry picker, and took it down branch by branch and carted it off in the back of a red truck, everyone 31 .
The dying 32 a field mouse, at the jaws of an amiable household cat, is a spectacle I have beheld many times. It 33 to make me wince. However, early in life I gave up throwing sticks 34 the cat to make him drop the mouse, 35 the dropped mouse regularly went ahead and died anyway.

1. 

A contained

B embraced

C packed

D littered

2. 

A ability

B skill

C quality

D technology

3. 

A and

B even

C yet

D but

4. 

A Furthermore

B However

C Even so

D Since then

5. 

A races

B creatures

C people

D human

6. 

A the other

B another

C the next

D the following

7. 

A caught

B held

C took

D picked

8. 

A that

B which

C it

D this

9. 

A something

B anything

C nothing

D everything

10. 

A crew

B members

C corps

D fellows

11. 

A sings

B sang

C sung

D singing

12. 

A to

B in

C for

D of

13. 

A was

B was used

C used

D was about

14. 

A into

B on

C at

D off

15. 

A but

B because

C while

D in order that

An important variable affecting communication across cultures is fate and personal responsibility. 1. This refers to the degree to which we feel ourselves the masters of our lives, versus the degree to which we see ourselves as subject to things outside our control. Another way to look at this is to ask how much see ourselves able to change and maneuver, to choose the course of our lives and relationships. Some have drawn a parallel between the emphasis on personal responsibility in North American settings and the landscape itself. The North American Landscape is vast, with large spaces of unpopulated territory. 2. The frontier mentality of "conquering" the wilderness, and the expansiveness of the land stretching huge distances, may relate to generally high levels of confidence in the ability to shape and choose our destinies.
In this expansive landscape, many children grow up with an epic sense of life, where ideas are big, and hope springs eternal. When they experience setbacks, they are encouraged to redouble their efforts, to "try, try again." 3. Action, efficacy, and achievement are emphasized and expected. Free will is enshrined in laws and enforced by courts.
Now consider places in the world with much smaller territory, whose history reflects repeated conquest and harsh straggles: Northern Ireland, Mexico, Israel, Palestine. In these places, there is more emphasis on destiny"s role in human life. In Mexico, there is a legacy of poverty, invasion, and territorial mutilation. Mexicans are more likely to see struggles as invasion, and territorial mutilation. Mexicans are more likely to see struggles as inevitable or unavoidable. 4. Their fatalistic attitude is expressed in their way of responding to failure or accident by saying "ni modo" ("no way" or "tough luck", meaning that the setback was destined.
This variable is important to understanding cultural conflict. If someone invested in free will crosses paths with someone more fatalistic in orientation, miscommunication is likely. The first person may expect action and accountability. Failing to see it, they may conclude that the second is lazy, obstructionist, or dishonest. 5. The second person will expect respect for the natural order of things. Failing to see it, they may conclude that the first is coercive or irreverent inflated in his ideas of what can be accomplished or changed.

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

China has the greatest population in the world and a large pool of research workers, yet it has not produced a single Nobel prize winner so far. What has caused this situation in your opinion?