Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minute to write a short essay entitled Spring Festival Gala on CCTV. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given bellow:
(1) 许多人喜欢在除夕观看春节联欢晚会
(2) 有些人却提出取消春节联欢晚会
(3) 在我看来……

Spring Festival Gala on CCTV

Six Secrets of High-Energy People

    There’s an energy crisis in America, and it has nothing to do with fossil fuels. Millions of us get up each morning already weary over the day holds. “I just can’t get started,” people say. But it’s not physical energy that most of us lack. Sure, we could all use extra sleep and a better diet. But in truth, people are healthier today than at any time in history. I can almost guarantee that if you long for more energy, the problem is not with your body.
    What you’re seeking is not physical energy. It’s emotional energy. Yet, sad to say, life sometimes seems designed to exhaust our supply. We work too hard. We have family obligations. We encounter emergencies and personal crises. No wonder so many of us suffer from emotional fatigue, a kind of utter exhaustion of the spirit.
    And yet we all know people who are filled with joy, despite the unpleasant circumstances of their lives. Even as a child, I observed people who were poor, or disabled, or ill, but who nonetheless faced life with optimism and vigor. Consider Laura Hillenbrand, who despite an extremely weak body, wrote the best-seller Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand barely had enough physical energy to drag herself out of bed to write. But she was fueled by having a story she wanted to share. It was emotional energy that helped her succeed.
    Unlike physical energy, which is finite and diminishes with age, emotional energy is unlimited and has nothing to do with genes or upbringing. So how do you get it? You can’t simply tell yourself to be positive. You must take action. Here are six practical strategies that work.
    1) Do something new.
    Very little that’s new occurs in our lives. The impact of this sameness on our emotional energy is gradual, but huge: It’s like a tire with a slow leak. You don’t notice it at first, but eventually you’ll get a flat. It’s up to you to plug the leak—even though there are always a dozen reasons to stay stuck in your dull routines of life. That’s where Maura, 36, a waitress, found herself a year ago.
    Fortunately, Maura had a lifeline—a group of women friends who meet regularly to discuss their lives. Their lively discussions spurred Maura to make small but nevertheless life altering changes. She joined a gym in the next town. She changed her look with a short haircut and new black T-shirts. Eventually, Maura gathered the courage to quit her job and start her own business.
    Here’s a challenge: If it’s something you wouldn’t ordinarily do, do it. Try a dish you’ve never eaten. Listen to music you’d ordinarily tune out. You’ll discover these small things add to your emotional energy.
    2) Reclaim life’s meaning.
    So many of my patients tell me that their lives used to have meaning, but that somewhere along the line things went stale.
    The first step in solving this meaning shortage is to figure out what you really care about, and then do something about it. A case in point is Ivy, 57, a pioneer in investment banking. “I mistakenly believed that all the money I made would mean something,” she says. “But I feel lost, like a 22-year-old wondering what to do with her life.” Ivy’s solution? She started a program that shows Wall Streeters how to donate time and money to poor children. In the process, Ivy filled her life with meaning.
    3) Put yourself in the fun zone.
    Most of us grown-ups are seriously fun-deprived. High-energy people have the same day-to-day work as the rest of us, but they manage to find something enjoyable in every situation. A real estate broker I know keeps herself amused on the job by mentally redecorating the houses she shows to clients. “I love imagining what even the most run-down house could look like with a little tender loving care,” she says. “It’s a challenge—and the least desirable properties are usually the most fun.”
    We all define fun differently, of course, but I can guarantee this: If you put just a bit of it into your day, you energy will increase quickly.
    4) Bid farewell to guilt and regret.
    Everyone’s past is filled with regrets that still cause pain. But from an emotional energy point of view, they are dead weights that keep us from moving forward. While they can’t merely be willed away, I do recommend you remind yourself that whatever happened is in the past, and nothing can change that. Holding on to the memory only allows the damage to continue into the present.
    5）Make up your mind.
    Say you’ve been thinking about cutting your hair short. Will it look stylish—or too extreme? You endlessly think it over. Having the decision hanging over your head is a huge energy drain.Every time you can’t decide, you burden yourself with alternatives. Quit thinking that you have to make the right decision; instead, make a choice and don’t look back.
    6）Give to get.
    Emotional energy has a kind of magical quality; the more you give, the more you get back. This is the difference between emotional and physical energy. With the latter, you have to get it to be able to give it. With the former, however, you get it by giving it.
    Start by asking everyone you meet, “How are you?” as if you really want to know, then listen to the reply. Be the one who hears. Most of us also need to smile more often. If you don’t smile at the person you love first thing in the morning, you’re sucking energy out of your relationship. Finally, help another person—and make the help real, concrete. Give a massage (按摩) to someone you love, or cook her dinner. Then, expand the circle to work. Try asking yourself what you’d do if your goal were to be helpful rather than efficient.
    After all, if it’s true that what goes around comes around, why not make sure that what’s circulating around you is the good stuff?

    You probably have noticed that people express similar ideas in different ways depending on the situation they are in. This is very (1) ________. All languages have two general levels of (2) ________: a formal level and an informal level. English is no (3) ________. The difference in these two levels is the situation in which you use a (4) ________ level. Formal language is the kind of language you find in textbooks, (5) ________ books and in business letters. You would also use formal English in compositions and (6) ________ that you write in school. Informal language is used in conversation with (7) ________, family members and friends, and when we write (8) ________ notes or letters to close friends.
    Formal language is different from informal language in several ways. First, formal language tends to be more polite. (9) ________________________________. For example, I might say to a friend or a family member “Close the door, please,” (10) ________________________________.
    Another difference between formal and informal language is some of the vocabulary. (11) ________________________________. Let’s say that I really like soccer. If I am talking to my friend I might say “I am just crazy about soccer!” But if I were talking to my boss, I would probably say “I really enjoy soccer.”

    The flood of women into the job market boosted economic growth and changed U.S. society in many ways. Many in-home jobs that used to be done (1) ________ by women—ranging from family shopping to preparing meals to doing (2) ________ work—still need to be done by someone. Husbands and children now do some of these jobs, a (3) ________ that has changed the target market for many products. Or a working woman may face a crushing “poverty of time” and look for help elsewhere, creating opportunities for producers of frozen meals, child care centers, dry cleaners, financial services, and the like.
    Although there is still a big wage (4) ________ between men and women, the income working women (5) ________ gives them new independence and buying power. For example, women now (6) ________ about half of all cars. Not long ago, many cars dealers (7) ________ women shoppers by ignoring them or suggesting that they come back with their husbands. Now car companies have realized that women are (8) ________ customers. It’s interesting that some leading Japanese car dealers were the first to (9) ________ pay attention to women customers. In Japan, fewer women have jobs or buy cars—the Japanese society is still very much male-oriented. Perhaps it was the (10) ________ contrast with Japanese society that prompted American firms to pay more attention to women buyers.

    Reaching new peaks of popularity in North America is Iceberg Water, which is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
    Arthur von Wiesenberger, who carries the title Water Master, is one of the few water critics in North America. As a boy, he spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a water journal, noting the brands he liked best. “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water,” He says.
    But is plain tap water all that bad? Not at all. In fact, New York’s municipal water for more than a century was called the champagne of tap water and until recently considered among the best in the world in terms of both taste and purity. Similarly, a magazine in England found that tap water from the Thames River tasted better than several leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.
    Nevertheless, soft-drink companies view bottled water as the next battle-ground for market share—this despite the fact that over 25 percent of bottled water comes from tap water: PepsiCo’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani are both purified tap water rather than spring water.
    As diners thirst for leading brands, bottlers and restaurateurs salivate (垂涎) over the profits. A restaurant’s typical mark-up on wine is 100 to 150 percent, whereas on bottled water it’s often 300 to 500 percent. But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands aren’t available in stores, most diners don’t notice or care.
    As a result, some restaurants are turning up the pressure to sell bottled water. According to an article in The Street Journal, some of the more shameless tactics include placing attractive bottles on the table for a visual sell, listing brands on the menu without prices, and pouring bottled water without even asking the diners if they want it.
    Regardless of how it’s sold, the popularity of bottled water taps into our desire for better health, our wish to appear cultivated, and even a longing for lost purity.

    As we have seen, the focus of medical care in our society has been shifting from curing disease to preventing disease—especially in terms of changing our many unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and failure to exercise. The line of thought involved in this shift can be pursued further. Imagine a person who is about the right weight, but does not eat very nutritious (有营养的) foods, who feels OK but exercises only occasionally, who goes to work every day, but is not an outstanding worker, who drinks a few beers at home most nights but does not drive while drunk, and who has no chest pains or abnormal blood counts, but sleeps a lot and often feels tired. This person is not ill. He may not even be at risk for any particular disease. But we can imagine that this person could be a lot healthier.
    The field of medicine has not traditionally distinguished between someone who is merely “not ill” and someone who is in excellent health and pays attention to the body’s special needs. Both types have simply been called “well.” In recent years, however, some health specialists have begun to apply the terms “well” and “wellness” only to those who are actively striving to maintain and improve their health. People who are well are concerned with nutrition and exercise, and they make a point of monitoring their body’s condition. Most important, perhaps, people who are well take active responsibility for all matters related to their health. Even people who have a physical disease or handicap (缺陷) may be “well,” in this new sense, if they make an effort to maintain the best possible health they can in the face of their physical limitations. “Wellness” may perhaps best be viewed not as a state that people can achieve, but as an ideal that people can strive for. People who are well are likely to be better able to resist disease and to fight disease when it strikes. And by focusing attention on healthy ways of living, the concept of wellness can have a beneficial impact on the ways in which people face the challenges of daily life.

    Language is the most astonishing behavior in the animal kingdom. It is the species-typical behavior that sets humans completely (1) ________ from all other animals. Language is a means of communication, (2) ________ it is much more than that. Many animals can (3) ________. The dance of the honeybee communicates the location of flowers (4) ________ other members of the hive (蜂群). But human language permits communication about anything, (5) ________ things like unicorn (独角兽) that have never existed. The key (6) ________ in the fact that the units of meaning, words, can be (7) ________ together in different ways, according to (8) ________, to communicate different meanings.
    Language is the most important learning we do. Nothing (9) ________ humans so much as our ability to communicate abstract thoughts, (10) ________ about the universe, the mind, love, dreams, or ordering a drink. It is an immensely complex (11) ________that we take for granted. Indeed, we are not aware of most (12) ________ of our speech and understanding. Consider what happens when one person is speaking to (13) ________. The speaker has to translate thoughts into (14) ________ language. Brain imaging studies suggest that the time from thoughts to the (15) ________ of speech is extremely fast, only 0.04 seconds! The listener must hear the sounds to (16) ________ out what the speaker means. He must use the sounds of speech to (17) ________ the words spoken, understand the pattern of (18) ________ of the words (sentences), and finally (19) ________ the meaning. This takes somewhat longer, a minimum of about 0.5 seconds. But (20) ________ started, it is of course a continuous process.