Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand and remember．Churchill warned the British to expect “blood, toil, tears and sweat”; Roosevelt told the Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”; Lenin promised the war-weary Russians peace, land and bread．Straightforward but effective messages．

We have an image of what a leader ought to be．We even recognize the physical signs; leaders may not necessarily be tall, but they must have bigger-than-life, commanding features －- Lyndon Baines Johnson’s nose and ear lobes, Ike’s broad grin．A trade-mark also comes in handy; Lincoln’s stovepipe hat, Kennedy’s rocking chair．We expect our leaders to stand out a little, not to be like an ordinary man．Half of President Ford’s trouble lay on the fact that, if you closed your eyes for a moment, you couldn’t remember his face, figure of clothes．A leader should have an unforgettable identity, instantly and permanently fixed in people’s minds．

It also helps for a leader to be able to do something most of us can’t: FDR overcame polio; Mao swam the Yangtze River at the age of 72. We don’t want our leaders to be "just like us." We want them to be like us but better, special more so. Yet if they are too different, we reject them.

A Chinese philosopher once remarked that a leader must have the grace of a good dancer, and there is a great deal of wisdom to this. A leader should know how to appear relaxed and confident. His walks should be firm and purposeful. He should be able, like Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, Lke and JFK, to give a good, hearty, belly laugh, instead of the sickly grin that passes for good humor in Nixon or Carter. Ronald Reagan’s training as an actor showed to good effect in the debate with Carter, when by his easy manner and apparent affability, he managed to convey the impression that in fact he was the president and Carter the challenger.

The every simple truth about leadership is that people can only be led where they want to go. The leader follows, though a step ahead. Americans wanted to climb out of the Depression and needed someone to tell them they could do it, and Roosevelt did. The British believed that they could still win the war after the defeats of 1940, and Churchill told them they were right.

A leader rides the waves, moves with the tides, understands the deepest yearning of his people. He cannot make a nation that wants peace at any price go to war, or stop a nation determined to fight from doing so. His purpose must match the national mood.

1.The underlined word “yearning” in the last paragraph probably means      .

    A．love           B．trouble        C．desire         D．feeling

2.From the fourth paragraph we can learn that         .

    A．leaders usually look special or different

    B．leaders don’t have to be tall

    C．most leaders look ordinary

    D．leaders should always have trademarks

3.According to the article, a leader         .

    A．usually tries to simplify our messages

    B．tell us what we want to hear

    C．encourages us to think about things in a new way

    D．is usually confident and handsome

4.From the passage we can infer that          .

    A．it helps for a leader to be able to dance or act well

    B．great leaders are usually totally different from us

    C．Carter was humorous and made good speeches

    D．it is the people rather than the president that makes what a nation is

5.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

    A．Want to be a leader?

    B．What makes a leader?

    C．What does a leader look like?

    D．What must a leader do?

While surfing television channels over the weekend，a scene from a family classic of last year portraying the now-so-familiar sorry state of retired parents being ill-treated by their children and families caught my attention. I wondered why the description of this relationship had not changed much over the many years! Even though the same movies and soaps accurately capture several other social changes around us — from value systems to new found economic freedom to the importance of technology and the changing approach to consumerism(消费主义) — are these creative efforts far from the truth in telling us that an average retiree is still struggling?
Look around and you will agree that the post-retired lifestyle for an ex-salaried class people is often a pale shadow of their last working years. Even self employed people, who have handed over the responsibility to the next generation, are no exception. Did the average middle class not save enough through his working years?
Socially, we already know that the Indians are taught the benefits of start saving early on in life. Household savings data supports this social behavior — India has the highest rates of savings among various economies and is far ahead of the west. Yet, tragically, a lifetime of savings does not seem to provide enough for a comfortable retirement!
A closer look at the pattern of what we do with our financial savings may tell us a bit more. Over half of households’ financial savings is put into a “safe” deposit, followed by large portions in insurance, pension, provident funds（福利基金） and the rest in physical currency. Less than a tenth goes into “risky” assets(资产) like stocks. While there might be nothing, in particular, worrisome in this investment pool, one has to consider inflation(通货膨胀). The real value of savings, over a few decades, may actually be lower than the starting point.
【小题1】What had not changed much over the many years according to the passage?

第二节：英国卫报就教育问题在其网站上组织了一次讨论，其中Jesica、Bernal、Stevens、Carlos与lnersoll的观点颇具代表性。第61—65题是他们各自的观点。阅读下面发表在the Guardians网站上的6段留言（A、B、C、D、E和F），选择与其观点一致的表述，并在答题纸上将该项标号涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。

61．Stevens blames the modern methods of teaching for the deafening noise in primary schools.

62．Jessica holds the view that it’s shameful that the investment in education has not achieved the expected results.

63．Ingersoll believes that education should be assessed from the students’ aspect and that how much they enjoy is what counts most.

64．Carlos thinks that in terms of education, students’ own willingness to learn really matters.

65．Bernal thinks the standard of education has made significant progress though we may not see plenty of obvious sings of it.

A

I think it’s a great shame that people don’t learn anything today. I mean, good heavens, when you think of all the millions of pounds the Government have spent on education—new schools, more teachers, new equipment. And yet still you find people who can’t read properly, can’t even write their names and don’t know what two and two is without a calculator. I think it’s downright disgraceful. I remember when I was young you went to school to learn. You did as you were told and respected your teachers. Nowadays you get long-haired kids who aren’t interested in anything. No wonder they don’t learn anything.

B

I can’t praise our educational system too much. Our universities provide internationally recognized qualifications and the teaching standards in our country are among the best in the world. The education system in our country is different from that in many other countries, and it greatly appeals to the foreign students. It has a long history of welcoming international students to study in its universities and colleges. Now over 300,000 international students from 180 different courtiers are currently studying in Britain. I think the government should invest more money into this field to maintain the competitiveness of the system and ensure the high quality of the education in the 21st century.

C

Well, there are a log of different views on this, but I think it is probably wrong to imagine that there was some golden age in the past when everything was perfect. It all depends, of course, on what you measure and how you measure it. It may surprise some people that there ha snot been an obvious and dramatic increase in the standard of educating, given the vast amounts of money spent in this area by successive governments in recent years. But of course you can’t expect to see a child grow into an adult overnight.

D

Well, if you asked me, it’s all these modern methods that is the problem. In the old days you sat in rows at desks and you did as you were told. You knew what you had to do and you did it—and you kept quiet. Nowadays, my god, the noise in most schools is deafening especially primary schools. The children wander around—do more or less what they want to as far as I can see. The teacher just sits there or wanders around with them, talking to them. Informal teaching they call it. discovery methods sounds more like a recipe for discovering disaster to me.

E

Many people talk about how to improve education and a lot suggest raising the salaries of teachers and professors. Of course, this is very important to education. Of course, this is very important to education. However, increasing the salary of teachers is just one way to improve education. It will not work without the cooperation of the other determining factors, such as students’ love of knowledge and reading. Even if the teachers are devoted, it will make no sense if the students are not willing to learn.

F

The criticism that what students learn today is not adapted to present-day society is completely wrong because education can never be seen only in terms of how useful the subjects are when students leave school. We ought to assess education in terms of how much the students enjoy those subjects and how much they mean to those students. Instead of being trained to be utilitarian, students should be encouraged to do things for their own sake, and study what they are interested in.