The price of coffee beans hits a 12 – year high today. I thought there might
be some kind of coffee – market story, like we saw with cocoa earlier this summer.
But the main driver of coffee prices right now is simpler: Colombia has had
a few years of weak coffee harvests because of too much rain, which has reduced
the global supply. And coffee drinkers keep buying coffee, even as prices rise, in
other words, demand is unchanged.
The higher price of beans – up about 40 percent since March – means higher prices for the coffee you buy by the pound. But it probably won’t affect the coffee you buy by the cup.
Smuckers, which sells Folgers and Millstone coffees, recently said it was raising its prices because of the higher cost of beans. Starbucks, however, said it would absorb the higher cost of beans without raising prices.
“You see it much more in the grocery store because the raw materials are a big factor of cost,” Jose Sette of the International Coffee Organization told me. “In a coffee shop, your big expenses are rent and labor.”
While real – world supply and demand is the big driver of the price of beans, there may be some speculative action in coffee business in the future.
But futures (期货) of the high – grade Arabica beans are traded in the US, where regulations prevent speculators (投机商) from controlling the market, hoping such things won’t happen just as in London summer market. That suggests that prices should fall when supply improves – which may happen next year.
Some experts say that farmers in third world countries won’t actually benefit from higher prices in this case. When the price difference is due to supply and demand, the profit of the seller usually doesn’t go up.
【小题1】Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

PART FOUR WRITING

SECTION A

Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in the numbered blanks by using the information from the passage.

     Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

The girls in this sixth grade class in East Palo Alto, California, all have the same access to computers as boys. But researchers say, by the time they get to high school, they are victims of what the researchers call a major new gender (性别) gap in technology. Janice Weinman of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) says, "Girls tend to be less comfortable than boys with the computer. They use it more for word processing rather than for problem solving, rather than to discover new ways in which to understand information.

  After re-examining a thousand studies, the AAUW researchers found that girls make up only a small percentage of students in computer science classes. Girls rate themselves significantly lower than boys in their ability and confidence in using computers. And they use computers less often than boys outside the classroom.

  An instructor of a computer lab says he's already noticed some difference. Charles Cheadle of Cesar Chavez School says, "Boys are not so afraid they might do something that will harm the computer, whereas girls are afraid they might break it somehow."

    Six years ago, the software company Purple Moon noticed that girls' computer usage was falling behind boys. Karen Gould with the company says, "The number one reason girls told us they don't like computer games is not that they're too violent, or too competitive. Girls just said they're unbelievably boring." What girls want, Purple Moon found, is characters they can relate to and story lines relative to what's going on in their own lives. "What we definitely found from girls is that there is no intrinsic (内在的) reason why they wouldn't want to play on a computer; it was just a content thing," says Karen Gould.

   The sponsor of the study says it all boils down to this: the technology gender gap that separates the girls from the boys must be closed if women are to compete effectively with men in the 21st century.

What has caused the new gender gap in technology?

I. The present situation:

Before high school: ◆Girls use computers   71   boys.

In high school: ◆Girls make up   72   in computer science classes.

             ◆Girls feel less comfortable with the computer.

             ◆Boys use computers   73   often than girls after class.

             ◆Boys feel more   74   when using computers.

II. The   75   of the situation:

What they do with a computer:

◆Girls prefer to use computers for _ 76  .

◆Boys prefer to use computers for   77   and understanding information.

How they feel about a computer:

◆Girls are afraid of breaking it.

◆Boys are   78   such worry.

Their   79   to computer games:

◆Girls think they are boring because the characters are irrelevant to their lives.

◆Boys don’t have such feelings.

III. The appeal from   80  :

◆The technology gender gap must be closed.

Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage and the required words limit. Write your answers on your answer sheet.

The worst US economic recession (萧条) in 70 years is forcing senior citizens out of retirement, leaving them fighting for jobs in a weak labor market or risking homelessness.

A study by Experience Works, released on Tuesday, showed 46 percent of the 2,000 low income people over 55 years who participated needed to find work to keep their homes. Nearly half of them had been searching for work for more than a year.

“These people are at the age where they understandably thought their job-searching years were behind them,” said Cynthia Metzler, president and CEO of Experience Works.

“But here they are, many in their 60s, 70s and beyond, desperate to find work so they can keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.”

According to the study, many of the participants had no intention of working past their 60th birthday, but had to change plans after being dismissed or following the death of the partner. Over a third of the participants had retired.

Ninety percent of respondents 76 years and older planned to continue working for the next five years.

Huge medical bills due to a personal illness or that of a spouse(配偶) were also reasons for coming out of retirement, the survey found. The longest and deepest economic slump since the 1930s is making finding a job for the low-income elderly workers a difficult challenge.

The Experience Works study found that 46 percent of the elderly jobseekers were sometimes forced to choose between paying rent, buying food or medication. Almost three-quarters believed their age made it harder to compete for jobs with younger workers.

“This study underscores calls for the need to create policies that remove barriers to employment for older workers and provide additional programs and services specifically aimed at helping older people re-enter the work force or remain working,” said Metzler.

1. What has caused the American retired senior citizens back to work?  (No more than 8 words)

2. Why is it hard for the elderly job seekers to find a job?  (No more than 13 words)

3. Use several words to describe the possible feelings of the elderly job seekers? (No more than 4 words)

4. What might be the solution to the problem according to the study?  (No more than 15 words)

The price of coffee beans hits a 12 – year high today. I thought there might

be some kind of coffee – market story, like we saw with cocoa earlier this summer.

But the main driver of coffee prices right now is simpler: Colombia has had

a few years of weak coffee harvests because of too much rain, which has reduced

the global supply. And coffee drinkers keep buying coffee, even as prices rise, in

other words, demand is unchanged.

The higher price of beans – up about 40 percent since March – means higher prices for the coffee you buy by the pound. But it probably won’t affect the coffee you buy by the cup.

Smuckers, which sells Folgers and Millstone coffees, recently said it was raising its prices because of the higher cost of beans. Starbucks, however, said it would absorb the higher cost of beans without raising prices.

“You see it much more in the grocery store because the raw materials are a big factor of cost,” Jose Sette of the International Coffee Organization told me. “In a coffee shop, your big expenses are rent and labor.”

While real – world supply and demand is the big driver of the price of beans, there may be some speculative action in coffee business in the future.

But futures (期货) of the high – grade Arabica beans are traded in the US, where regulations prevent speculators (投机商) from controlling the market, hoping such things won’t happen just as in London summer market. That suggests that prices should fall when supply improves – which may happen next year.

Some experts say that farmers in third world countries won’t actually benefit from higher prices in this case. When the price difference is due to supply and demand, the profit of the seller usually doesn’t go up.

1.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

    A．Why coffee is getting more expensive?

    B．How farmer benefits from the high price?

    C．Whether the US will control the coffee market?

    D．What has caused the reduction of coffee?

2.From the second paragraph we can infer that _______________________.

    A．Colombia is the coffee trading center of the world

    B．Colombia coffee output contains a final share of the world

    C．People need more and more coffee

    D．Coffee sales will be getting less and less

3.In this summer’s coffee bean market, ____________________________.

    A．the US made more rules about coffee prices

    B．speculators once held the coffee bean market in London

    C．coffee bean trading was seriously disorganized

    D．coffee bean prices were very low in the US

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

    A．The price difference determines the profit of the seller.

    B．Smuckers is a famous coffee manufacturer.

    C．Real – world supply and demand decides the prices.

    D．Coffee prices will become much higher next year.

We are not born doubting ourselves. We learn to do it. In fact, we are usually taught to doubt ourselves. We can learn some ways that allow us to become more accepting of ourselves. Following are two behaviors that might explain the reasons why you can’t move towards greater self-acceptance.

One thing that might cause you not to accept yourself is over-generalizing about something you've done that you don’t like．For example, if you fail a test you might generalize and say, “I’m really a stupid person.” When you do this you are making a statement about all of you all of the time and not just about this one situation at this time. Instead, you might decide that your grade on this test in this subject at this time was indeed poor, and then go on to decide what you want to do about your poor grade, if anything. Getting stuck in over-generalizing discourages you from taking steps that might allow you to do better on the next exam and to build an expectation of future failure.

Having standards that are impossibly high is a second way you can not accept yourself. It may not come as a surprise to you that most of us are more demanding of ourselves than we are of others. Somehow we can tolerate the fact that other people fail, that they aren’t always kind, that they’ve done things they aren’t proud of, but we have difficulty accepting those very human aspects of ourselves. The need to be perfect is another way to set yourself up for failure and enhance the feeling that you are not acceptable. We all make mistakes. Accepting less than perfection simply means recognizing the limitations natural in being born a human being. Learn to value who you are rather than who you could become. Wouldn’t it be overpowering if we always had to do what we imagine we could do? Nobody has the time and energy to do all of that. We must make choices about what we will pursue and do them the best we can under the circumstances, which aren’t always ideal, by the way.

60．Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. We can feel that we are perfect when we set ourselves up for success.

B. We can tolerate the fact that we’ve done things we aren’t proud of.

C. Over-generalizing might encourage you to expect the future.

D. Over-generalizing might cause you not to accept yourself.

61．What is the author’s attitude according to the passage?

A. It’s necessary for people to be perfect.

B. It’s acceptable for people to be imperfect.

C. It’s strange for people to be born with limitation.

D. It’s possible for people to do what they imagine.

62．What has caused the lack of self-acceptance?

A. Tolerance and high-level.

B. Limitation and expectation.

C. Over-generalization and high-standard.

D. Extreme difficulty and complete failure.