Europe is not a gender-equality heaven. In particular, the corporate workplace will never be completely family-friendly until women are part of senior management decisions, and Europe’s top corporate-governance positions remain overwhelmingly male. Indeed, women hold only 14 percent of positions on Europe corporate boards.

　　The Europe Union is now considering legislation(立法) to compel corporate boards to maintain a certain proportion of women---up to 60 percent. This proposed mandate(强制执行) was born of frustration. Last year, Europe Commission Vice President Viviane Reding issued a call to voluntary action. Reding invited corporations to sign up for gender balance goal of 40 percent female board membership. But her appeal was considered a failure: only 24 companies took it up.

　　Do we need quotas(定量) to ensure that women can continue to climb the corporate Ladder fairly as they balance work and family?

　　“Personally, I don’t like quotas,” Reding said recently. “But I like what the quotas do.” Quotas get action: they “open the way to equality and they break through the glass ceiling(女性在工作中遇到的一种无形障碍),” according to Reding, a result seen in France and other countries with legally binding provisions on placing women in top business positions.

　　I understand Reding’s reluctance---and her frustration. I don’t like quotas either; they conflict with my belief in meritocracy(精英管理), government by the capable. But, when one considers the obstacles to achieving the meritocratic ideal, it does look as if a fairer world must be temporarily ordered.

　　After all, four decades of evidence has now shown that corporations in Europe as the US are evading the meritocratic hiring and promotion of women to top position---no matter how much “soft pressure” is put upon them. When women do break through to the summit of corporate power---as, for example, Sheryl Sandberg recently did at Facebook---they attract massive attention precisely because they remain the exception to the rule.

　　If appropriate pubic policies were in place to help all women---whether CEOs or their children’s caregivers---and all families, Sandberg would be no more newsworthy than any other highly capable person living in a more just society.

53. In the European corporate workplace, generally __________.

　 A. women take the lead

　 B. men have the final say

　 C. corporate governance is overwhelmed

　 D. senior management is family-friendly

54. According to Reding, quotas may help women __________.

　 A. get top business positions

　 B. see through the glass ceiling

　 C. balance work and family

　 D. anticipate legal results

55. The author’s attitude toward Reding’s appeal is __________.

　 A. skeptical             B. objective                   C. indifferent                D. approving

56. Women entering top management become headlines due to the lack of __________.

　 A. more social justice

　 B. massive media attention

　 C. suitable public policies

　 D. greater “soft pressure”

过生日互赠礼物在中学生中似乎成为一种时尚，甚至有的学生还去饭店搞生日聚会。对此，同学们有不同的看法。假设你是王平，请你根据下表提示，给某英语报社的编辑写一封信，并谈谈自己的观点。

注意：1. 词数：120--150左右 （信的开头和结尾已经给出，但不计入总词数）

2.短文须包括表中的全部内容，可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

3.参考词汇：攀比 keep up with the Joneses

Dear Editor,

I’m a middle school student named Wang Ping.                                         

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Yours,

                                                         Wang Ping

过生日互赠礼物在中学生中似乎成为一种时尚，甚至有的学生还去饭店搞生日聚会。对此，同学们有不同的看法。假设你是王平，请你根据下表提示，给某英语报社的编辑写一封信，并谈谈自己的观点。

注意：

1．词数：120--150左右 （信的开头和结尾已经给出，但不计入总词数）

2．短文须包括表中的全部内容，可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

3．参考词汇：攀比 keep up with the Joneses

Dear Editor,

I’m a middle school student named Wang Ping．                              

Yours,

Wang Ping

信息匹配题

A. Speak, speak, speak

Practise speaking as often as you can---even speaking to yourself is good practice. Try recording yourself whenever you can. Compare your pronunciation with the master version(版本), see how you can do better and have another go. If you do this several times, you will find that each version is better than the last.

B. Why not learn with someone else?

It helps if you can learn with someone else. If you can persuade a friend or family member to study with you, it will make you keep working. Agree times to meet and set goals for the week. And test each other regularly.

C . Don’t get a shock by a word you don’t know

Practise improvising（即兴的） ways of getting your meaning across when speaking spontaneously（本能地）, even if you don’t know the exact words or phrases. Think of things you might want to say whenever you have spare time. A basic example is the use of tenses. If you don’t know the past tense but want to talk about yesterday, use the verb in the present tense and use the word “yesterday”.

Use facial expressions, hand movements, anything to get your meaning across.

Language learning is also about intuition（直觉）.

Guesswork is an important strategy in learning a new language. When listening to recorded material, you aren’t expected to understand everything first time round. If you play the same piece several times, you will most probably understand something new each time. Learn to make maximum use of all the clues you can pick up. For example, what do the speakers sound like? happy, angry, calm etc.

E. Build up your vocabulary.

A wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning but don’t try to learn too much at once. It’s best to study frequently, for short periods of time. Take a maximum of six or seven items of vocabulary and learn them. Put them into sentences to fix them in your mind, then come back to them later. Much of the vocabulary in the course is presented by topic. And above all, have fun!

请阅读以下英语学习者在学习中碰到的困难，然后匹配该学习者应该采取上述五种做法（A、B、C、D、E）中的某一种。

(  ) 72. Jack Anderson. Jack’s vocabulary is very small. He is anxious to improve his English. Therefore, he wants to enlarge his vocabulary in a short time and tries his best to memorize new words as many as possible at a time.

(  ) 73. Margret Lillian. Margret Lillian’s pronunciation is poor. And she doesn’t know how to improve her pronunciation. She is very worried and doesn’t know what to do.

(  ) 74. Alice Fingerhut. Alice has difficulty in understanding the meaning of the English text. So she looks up the new words in the dictionary in order to understand everything.

(  ) 75. Lynne Nagata. Lynne can’t express herself clearly in English because she sometimes forgets some key words and doesn’t know the tenses exactly. What can she do?