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manufacturing centre in Europe. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Dutch looms and the stocking knitting frame were first pioneered in London. The vast range of London?s manufacturing skills is another fact; almos t any item you can name was manufactured in London during the days of its prosper ity. In 1851, 13.75 percent of the manufacturing work-force of Great Britain was based in London. By 1961, this had dramatically reduced. By 1993, there were a mere 328,000 Londoners engaged in manufacturing. In other words, by our own time s, two of the chief reasons for London?s very existence-its life as a pert and as a centre of manufacture-had dwindled out of existence.
London?s third great function, since the seventeenth century, has been tha t of national and international bourse: the exchange of stocks and shares, bankin g, commerce and, increasingly, insurance. Both In wood and Francis Sheppard, in London: A history, manage to make these potentially dry matters vivid to the gen eral reader, and both authors assure us that “The City” in the financial sense i s still as important as ever it was. Both, however, record the diminution of the City as an architectural and demographic entity, with the emptying of many city offices (since the advent of the computer much of the work can be done anywhere ) and the removal of many distinctive landmarks.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
33. The primary purpose of the passage is to ___. A. discuss the impact of the internet
B. forecast the future roles of the bookstore C. compare the publisher with the editor
D. evaluate the limitations of the printed page
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question 33.
Since the advent of television people have been prophesying the death of the book. Now the rise of the World Wide Web seems to have revived this smolderi ng controversy from the ashes. The very existence of paper copy has been brought into question once more. It might be the bookstore, rather than the book itself, that is on the br ink of extinction. Many of you will have noted tom of bookseller websites poppin g up. They provide lists of books and let you read sample chapters, reviews from other customers and interviews with authors.
What does all this mean? Browsing a virtual bookstore may not afford you the same dusty pleasure as browsing round a real shop, but as far as service, pr ice and convenience are concerned there is really no competition. This may chang e before long, as publishers? websites begin to offer direct access to new publ ications.
Perhaps it is actually the publisher who is endangered by the relentless advance of the Internet. There are a remarkable number of sites republishing tex ts online--an extensive virtual library of materials that used to be handled pri marily by publishing companies.
From the profusion of electronic-text sites available, it looks as if thi s virtual library is here to stay unless a proposed revision to copyright law ta kes many publications out of the public domain. However, can electronic texts st ill be considered books?
Then again, it might be the editor at risk, in danger of being cut out of the publishing process. The Web not only makes it possible for just about anyon e to publish whatever they like whenever they like-there are virtually no costs involved. The editors would then be the millions of
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Internet users. And there is little censor ship, either.
So possibly it is the printed page, with its many limitations, that is pe rishing as the implications of new technologies begin to be fully realized. Last year Stanford University published the equivalent of a 6,000 page Business Engl ish dictionary, online. There seem to be quite obvious benefits to housing these multi-volume reference sets on the Web. The perceived benefits for other books, such as the novel, are perhaps less obvious.
TEXT H
First read the following question.
34. The reviewer?s attitude towards the books is ___. A. ambiguous B. objective C. doubtful D. ho stile Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question 34.
The 1990s have witnessed a striking revival of the idea that liberal democr atic political system are the best basis for international peace. Western states men and scholars have witnessed worldwide process of democratization, and tend t o see it as a sounder basis for peace than anything we have had in the past.
Central to the vision of a peaceful democratic world bas been the proposit ion that liberal democracies do not fight each other; that they may and frequent ly do get into fights with illiberal states, but not with other countries that a re basically similar in their political systems. The proposition appeals to poli tical leaders and scholars as well.
Yet it is doubtful whether the proposition is strong enough to bear the va st weight of generalization that has been placed on it. Among the many difficult ies it poses, two stand out: first there are many possible exceptions to the rul e that democracies do not fight each other; and second, there is much uncertaint y about why democracies have, for the most part, not fought each other.
Liberal Peace, Liberal War: American politics and international security b y John M. Owen is an attempt to explain the twin phenomena of liberal peace (why democracies do not fight each other) and liberal war (why they fight other sta tes, sometimes with the intent of making them liberal).
Owen?s analysis in the book strongly suggests that political leaders on a l l sides judged a given foreign country largely on the basis of its political sys tem; and this heavily influenced decisions on whether or not to wage war against it. However, be also shows that military factors, including calculations of the cost of going to war, were often influential in tipping the balance against war . In other words, democratic peace does not mean the end of power politics. Owen hints at, but never addresses directly, a sinister aspect of democrat ic peace theory: its assumption that there would be peace if only everybody else was like us. This can lead only too easily to attempts to impose the favoured s ystem on benighted foreigners by force-regardless of the circumstances and sensi bilities that make the undertaking hazardous, Owen?s central argument is not st r engthened by the occasional repetition nor by the remorselessly academic tone of the more theoretical chapters. However, most of the writing is succinct; the hi storical accounts are clear and to the point; and the investigation of the causa l links between liberalism and war is admirably thorough.
There are several grounds on which the book?s thesis might be criticized. The most obvious is that some twentieth-century experience goes against the argu ment that liberal states ally with
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others, above all, because they perceive them as fellow liberals. In our own time, several liberal democracies have maintaine d long and close relations with autocracies. However, Owen?s argument for a deg r ee of solidarity between liberal states provides at least part of the explanatio n for the continuation and even expansion of NATO in the post-Cold War era. TEXT I
First read the following questions.
35. In ___, the table of contents of the magazine was placed on its back cover. A. 1922 B. 1948 C. the 1930s D. the 1960s 36. The magazine was criticized for failing to ___.
A. appeal to the young B. attract old people C. interest readers aged 47 D. captivate rea ders in their 50s
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer questions 35 and 36.
New York-Reader?s Digest, the most widely read magazine in the world, will get a new look in a bid to attract younger readers, Reader? Digest Association Inc. announced on March 29. Beginning with the May issue, the world?s largest- circulation magazine will move its table of contents off the front cover to mode rnize its look and make it easier for readers to navigate, editor in chief Chris top her Willcox said. “When you have the table of contents on the cover, it limits w hat you can say about what?s in the magazine, ”Willcox said. The magazine?s f ami liar table of contents will be replaced with a photograph. The small size and fo cus of the editorial content will be unchanged, publisher Gregory Coleman said. “It will be a much more visual magazine, with more photography and less illustr ation,” he said in an interview.
Reader?s digest was first published in 1922, with line drawings on the c o vers, and in the 1930s began listing the contents on the front. For a couple of years in the 1960s, Willcox said,the table of contents was shifted to the back c over. The May issue will feature a cover photo of a woman firefighter in San Fra ncisco for an except from a new book,“ Fighting Fire. ”The names of a few arti cl es are listed on the cover, but the full table of contents will be on papes 2 an d 3. The issue began reaching subscribers on April 10 and will be on newsstands two weeks later. All 48 of the Digest?s worldwide editions—27 million copies in 19 languages—are making the change. Publisher Gregory Coleman said he expe cted the redesign to boost advertising sales. “We?ve done a lot of research, a nd have tested the concept in the US, Sweden, and New Zealand,” Coleman said.
The move comes as Reader?s Digest Association Inc. has struggled to boost profits. But industry analysts said its problems stretch beyond changes that wer e needed at the magazine. Publishing industry executives and Wall Street analyst s have criticized the magazine for failing to attract the next generation of rea ders. The company says its average reader is about 47,the same as the age for th e weekly new magazines, “They?ve been looking for ways to make the magazine a li ttle bit more the ?90s than the ?50s,” said Doug Arthur at Morgan Stanley Dea n W itter & Co. “The company has to be addressing the response rate on its direct m a rketing campaign, ”where its main problems lie. The company earned USD 133.5 mi l lion on sales of USD 2.8 billion in the year which ended last June. But it said, when it reported results, that profits would fall in the current year.
In answer to a question, Coleman said the redesign was not done because of advertisers, although they were enthusiastic about the changes. “This is being done from a reader-driven
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standpoint, ”he said.
TEXT J
First read the following questions.
37. Words in both the OWF and Longman Activator are ___. A. listed according to alphabetical order B. listed according to use frequency C. grouped according to similarities only D. grouped according to differences only
38. To know the correct word for “boiling with a low heat”, you will pr obably turn to first ___. A. page 10 B. page 99 C. page 100 D. page 448 Now go through TEXT J quickly and answer questions 37 and 38.
The Oxford Wordfinder (OWF)is a “production dictionary” designed for learn er s of English at Intermediate level and above, It is a useful tool with which to discover and encode (produce) meaning, rather than just to simply check the mean ing, grammar and pronunciation of words. The OWF encourages a reversal of the tr aditional role of the language learners? dictionary, which is normally to help decode and explain aspects of words that appear in a text.
The OWF is based upon similar lines to the ground breaking Longman Activato r in that words in each dictionary are not simply listed in alphabetical order. Instead, they are grouped according to their similarities and differences in bot h meaning and use. Twenty-three main groups of 630 “keywords” (concepts) in al ph abetical order, assist the learner in exploring semantic areas such as: “People ” , “Food and drink”, and “Language and Communication”. Each of these rather l arge areas contains cross-referencing in order to provide further helpful lexical in formation. Some of the keywords helpfully direct the learner to another keyword. Most keywords, however, have an index that shows how lexical items and their re lated terms are organized. Other keywords point to smaller sub-section headings whilst a few contain sections labeled “More”, which deal with less frequently occurring vocabulary.
The majority of words in the OWF are grouped together because they are clea rly related in meaning. Examples include: rucksack, “suitcase”, trunk and hol d- all, on page 28, under the keyword “Bag”. Other words are grouped together bec au se statistically they tend to “collocate”, i.e. appear in English very near, i f not next to each other. The reader would, more often than not, find them in the same sentence or phrase. Examples include those for “butter”, “spread” and “melt ”, and those for Television on page 448: “watching”, “turn on/off” and “pr ogramme”. The OWF is an ideal supplementary resource for learners to engage in word-b uilding activities during topic based lessons. How is it best used? Let?s say t h e learner wishes to know the correct word for “boiling with a low heat”. The i nt ermediate learner, who will probably begin her search under “Cook” on page 99, l ocates the sub-section: “heating food in order to cook it” on page 100,then th e further sub-section “cooking food in water” and finally finds the definition f ol lowed by the word:—to boil slowly and gently: simmer. With the help of the OWF teachers could design a variety of such vocabulary exercises for a class, or eve n go on to designing a vocabulary-based syllabus.
Definitions in the OWF are, as with all good dictionaries, concise but cle ar. They are obviously written according to a controlled defining vocabulary. Li nguistic varieties are also taken into consideration: formal/in formal labels ar e provided and, where it occurs, American
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English (AmE) is pointed out, e. g. fo r alcohol, liquor in AmE on page 10. The OWF also contains many drawings that ou tline meaning where words could not possibly do so or would require too much spa ce. Items chosen for inclusion in the OWF, along with example phrases outlining meaning are, it is assumed, based on evidence of frequency from a carefully cons tructed linguistic corpus, although this is not made clear.
TEXT K
First read the following questions.
39. Students who wish to take courses in Dutch or French ___. A. should pass the TOEFL test first B. must speak Dutch or French fluently C. may receive language training
D. must have a good command of English
40. Belgian universities do NOT offer courses on ___. A. medical sciences B. computer science
C. political and social sciences D. archaeology and art sciences
Now go through TEXT K quickly and answer questions 39 and 40.
To qualify to study in Belgium, it is essential to meet relevant requireme nts in (1) academic credentials, (2)linguistic skills, (3) academic objectives and (4) financial resources. Let us review these four points:
1. Academic credentials
Equivalence and admissibility of degrees will be assessed according to Belgian l aw and individual university regulations. Please submit a copy of your degree wi th a translation to the chosen university?s admission board. 2. Language skills
Chinese students who wish to follow courses in Dutch or French must realize that a superficial knowledge of the language will not do. The ability to speak Dutch or French is imperative in order to follow lectures and to pass examinations. A preparatory year of language instruction is available in some universities for already enrolled students. Please apply for information at the university of you r choice. Students who wish to attend lectures in English (post-academic trainin g international courses)must of course have a good command of that language. Uni versities will inform you about their individual TOEFL requirements.
3. Programmes
Belgian universities offer basic academic courses, advance academic training cou rses, doctoral programmes, post-academic training and various international stud y programmes (Master?s) in the field of technology, law, economics and applied e conomics, political and social sciences, dentistry, pharmaceutical sciences, lan guage and literature/history, archaeology and art sciences, psychology and educa tional sciences, medical sciences, engineering and applied biological sciences.
4. Financing
Although precise determination of study and living expenses depends on individua l life style, one can assess that about 350,000 Belgian Francs (BEF)( about 88,0 00 RMB) is necessary for one
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