Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the topic of Free Admission to Museums. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below:
(1) 越来越多的博物馆免费开放的目的是什么?
(2) 也会带来一些问题；
(3) 你的看法。

Free Admission to Museums

How Do You See Diversity?

　　As a manager, Tiffany is responsible for interviewing applicants for some of the positions with her company. During one interview, she noticed that the candidate never made direct eye contact. She was puzzled and somewhat disappointed because she liked the individual otherwise.
　　He had a perfect resume and gave good responses to her questions, but the fact that he never looked her in the eye said “untrustworthy,” so she decided to offer the job to her second choice.
“It wasn’t until I attended a diversity workshop that I realized the person we passed over was the perfect person,” Tiffany confesses. What she hadn’t known at the time of the interview was that the candidate’s “different” behavior was simply a cultural misunderstanding. He was an Asian-American raised in a household where respect for those in authority was shown by averting (避开) your eyes.
　　“I was just thrown off by the lack of eye contact; not realizing it was cultural,” Tiffany says. “I missed out, but will not miss that opportunity again.”
　　Many of us have had similar encounters with behaviors we perceive as different. As the world becomes smaller and our workplaces more diverse, it is becoming essential to expand our understanding of others and to reexamine some of our false assumptions.
Hire Advantage
　　At a time when hiring qualified people is becoming more difficult, employers who can eliminate invalid biases (偏见) from the process have a distinct advantage. My company, Mindsets LLC, helps organizations and individuals see their own blind spots. A real estate recruiter we worked with illustrates the positive difference such training can make.
　　“During my Mindsets coaching session, I was taught how to recruit a diversified workforce. I recruited people from different cultures and skill sets. The agents were able to utilize their full potential and experiences to build up the company. When the real estate market began to change, it was because we had a diverse agent pool that we were able to say in the real estate market much longer than others in the same profession.”
Blinded by Gender
　　Dale is an account executive who attended one of my workshops on supervising a diverse workforce. “Through one of the sessions, I discovered my personal bias,” he recalls. “I learned I had not been looking at a person as a whole person, and being open to differences.” In his case, the blindness was not about culture but rather gender.
　　“I had a management position open in my department; and the two finalists were a man and a woman. Had I not attended this workshop, I would have automatically assumed the man was the best candidate because the position required quite a bit of extensive travel. My reasoning would have been that even though both candidates were great and could have been successful in the position, I assumed the woman would have wanted to be home with her children and not travel.” Dale’s assumptions are another example of the well-intentioned but incorrect thinking that limits an organization’s ability to tap into the full potential of a diverse workforce.
　　“I learned from the class that instead of imposing my gender biases into the situation, I needed to present the full range of duties, responsibilities and expectations to all candidates and allow them to make an informed decision.” Dale credits the workshop, “because it helped me make decisions based on fairness.”
Year of the Know-It-All
　　Doug is another supervisor who attended one of my workshops. He recalls a major lesson learned from his own employee.
　　“One of my most embarrassing moments was when I had a Chinese-American employee put in a request to take time off to celebrate Chinese New Year. In my ignorance, I assumed he had his dates wrong’, as the first of January had just passed. When I advised him of this, I gave him a tong talking-to about turning in requests early with the proper dates.
　　“He patiently waited, then when I was done, he said he would like Chinese New Year off, not the Western New Year. He explained politely that in his culture the new year did not begin January first, and that Chinese New Year, which is tied to the lunar cycle, is one of the most celebrated holidays on the Chinese calendar. Needless to say, I felt very embarrassed in assuming he had his dates mixed up. But I learned a great deal about assumptions, and that the timing of holidays varies considerably from culture to culture.
　　“Attending the diversity workshop helped me realize how much I could learn by simply asking questions and creating dialogues with toy employees, rather than making assumptions and trying to be a know-it-all,” Doug admits. “The biggest thing I took away from the workshop is learning how to be more ‘inclusive’ to differences.”
A Better Bottom Line
　　An open mind about diversity not only improves organizations internally, it is profitable as well. These comments from a customer service representative show how an inclusive attitude can improve sales. “Most of my customers speak English as a second language. One of the best things my company has done is to contract with a language service that offers translations over the phone. It wasn’t until my boss received Mindsets’ training that she was able to understand how important inclusiveness was to customer service. As a result, our customer base has increased.”
　　Once we start to see people as individuals, and discard the stereotypes, we can move positively toward inclusiveness for everyone. Diversity is about coming together and taking advantage of our differences and similarities. It is about building better communities and organizations that enhance us as individuals and reinforce our shared humanity.
　　When we begin to question our assumptions and challenge what we think we have learned from our past, from the media, peers, family, friends, etc., we begin to realize that some of our conclusions are flawed (有缺陷的) or contrary to our fundamental values. We need to train ourselves to think differently, shift our mindsets and realize that diversity opens doors for all of us, creating opportunities in organizations and communities that benefit everyone.

    Around 120 years ago, Ebbinghaus began his study of memory. He (1) ________ on studying how quickly the human mind can remember (2) ________. One result of his research is known as the total time hypothesis（假设），which simply means the amount you learn (3) ________ on the time you spend trying to learn it. This can be taken as our first rule of learning.
　　Although it is usually true that studying for four hours is better than studying for one, there is the question of how we should use the four hours. For example, is it better to study for four hours (4) ________ or to study for one hour a day for four days in a (5) ________? The answer, as you may have (6) ________, is that it is better to spread out the study times. This (7) ________, through which too can learn more (8) ________ by dividing our practice time, is known as the distribution of practice effect. Thus, (9) __________________________________________.
　　But we’re not finished yet. We haven’t considered how we should study over very short periods of time. (10) __________________________________________. Should you look at the same word in rapid succession, or look at the word and then have some delay before you look at it again? (11) ___________________________________.

　　Every year in the first week of my English class, some students inform me that writing is too hard. They never write, unless assignments (1) ______ it. They find the writing process (2) ______ and difficult.
　　How awful to be able to speak in a language but not to write in it --- (3) ______ English, with its rich vocabulary. Being able to speak but not write is like living in an (4) ______ mansion(豪宅) and never leaving one small room. When I meet students who think they can’t write, I knots, as a teacher my (5) ______ is to show them the rest of the rooms. My task is to build fluency while providing the opportunity inherent in any writing activity to (6) ______ the moral and emotional development of my students. One great way to do this is by having students write in a journal in class every day.
　　Writing ability is like strength training. Writing needs to be done (7) ______, just like exercise; just as muscles grow stronger with exercise, writing skills improve quickly with writing practice. I often see a rise in student confidence and (8) ______ after only a few weeks of journal writing.
　　Expressing oneself in writing is one of the most important skills I teach to strengthen the whole student. When my students practice journal writing, they are practicing for their future academic, political, and (9) ______ lives. They build skills so that some day they might write a great novel, a piece of sorely needed legislation, or the perfect love letter. Every day that they write in their journals puts them a step (10) ______ to fluency, eloquence （雄辩），and command of language.

　　The January fashion show, called FutureFashion, exemplified how far green design has come. Organized by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, the show inspired many top designers to work with sustainable fabrics for the first time. Several have since made pledges to include organic fabrics in their lines.
　　The designers who undertake green fashion still face many challenges. Scott Hahn, cofounder with Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, which uses all-organic cotton, says high-quality sustainable materials can still be tough to find. “Most designers with existing labels are finding there aren’t comparable fabrics that can just replace what you’re doing and what your customers are used to,” he says. For example, organic cotton and non-organic cotton are virtually indistinguishable once woven into a dress. But some popular synthetics, like stretch nylon, still have few eco-friendly equivalents.
　　Those who do make the switch are finding they have more support. Last year the influential trade show Designers & Agents stopped charging its participation fee for young green entrepreneurs (企业家) who attend its two springtime shows in Los Angeles and New York and gave special recognition to designers whose collections are at least 25% sustainable. It now counts more than 50 green designers, up from fewer than a dozen two years ago. This week Wal-Mart is set to announce a major initiative aimed at helping cotton farmers go organic: it will buy transitional (过渡型的) cotton at higher prices, thus helping to expand the supply of a key sustainable material. “Mainstream is about to occur,” says Hahn.
　　Some analysts (分析师) are less sure. Among consumers, only 18% are even aware that ecofashion exists, up from 6% four years ago. Natalie Hormilla, a fashion writer, is an example of the unconverted consumer. When asked if she owned any sustainable clothes, she replied: “Not that I’m aware of.” Like most consumers, she finds little time to shop, and when she does, she’s on the hunt for “cute stuff that isn’t too expensive.” By her own admission, green just isn’t yet on her mind. But—thanks to the combined efforts of designers, retailers and suppliers—one day it will be.

　　Scientists have devised a way to determine roughly where a person has lived using a strand (缕) of hair, a technique that could help track the movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.
　　The method relies on measuring how chemical variations in drinking water show up in people’s hair.
　　“You’re what you eat and drink, and that’s recorded in your hair,” said Thure Ceiling, a geologist at the University of Utah.
　　While U.S. diet is relatively identical, water supplies vary. The differences result from weather patterns. The chemical composition of rainfall changes slightly as rain clouds move.
　　Most hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are stable, but traces of both elements are also present as heavier isotopes (同位素). The heaviest rain falls first. As a result, storms that form over the Pacific deliver heavier water to California than to Utah.
　　Similar patterns exist throughout the U.S. By measuring the proportion of heavier hydrogen and oxygen isotopes along a strand of hair, scientists can construct a geographic timeline. Each inch of hair corresponds to about two months.
　　Cerling’s team collected tap water samples from 600 cities and constructed a map of the regional differences. They checked the accuracy or the map by testing 200 hair samples collected from 65 barber shops.
　　They were able to accurately place the hair samples in broad regions roughly corresponding to the movement of rain systems.
　　“It’s not good for pinpointing (精确定位)," Ceding said. “It’s good for eliminating many possibilities.”
　　Todd Park, a local detective, said the method has helped him learn more about an unidentified woman whose skeleton was found near Great Salt Lake.
　　The woman was 5 feet tall. Police recovered 26 bones, a T-shirt and several strands of hair.
　　When Park heard about the research, he gave the hair samples to the researchers. Chemical testing showed that over the two years before her death, she moved about every two months.
　　She stayed in the Northwest, although the test could not be more specific than somewhere between eastern Oregon and western Wyoming.
　　“It’s still a substantial area,” Park said. “But it narrows it way down for me.”

　　Kimiyuki Suda should be a perfect customer for Japan’s car-makers. He’s young, successful executive at an Internet-services company in Tokyo and has plenty of disposable (1) ________. He used to own Toyota’s Hilux Surf, a sport utility vehicle. But now he uses (2) ________ subways and trains. “It’s not inconvenient at all,” he says. (3) ________, “having a car is so 20th century.”
　　Suda reflects a worrisome (4) ________ in Japan; the automobile is losing its emotional appeal, (5) ________ among the young, who prefer to spend their money on the latest electronic devices. (6) ________ mini-cars and luxury foreign brands are still popular, everything in between is (7) ________. Last year sales fell 6.7 percent, 7.6 percent (8) ________ you don’t count the mini-car market. There have been (9) ________ one-year drops in other nations: sales in Germany fell 9 percent in 2007 (10) ________ a tax increase. But experts say Japan is (11) ________ in that sales have been decreasing steadily (12) ________ time. Since 1990, yearly new-car sales have fallen from 7.8 million to 5.4 million units in 2007.
　　Alarmed by this state of (13) ________, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) (14) ________ a comprehensive study of the market in 2006. It found that a (15) ________ wealth gap, demographic (人口结构) changes and (16) ________ lack of interest in cars led Japanese to hold their (17) ________ longer, replace their cars with smaller ones (18) ________ give up car ownership altogether. JAMA (19) ________ a further sales decline of 1.2 percent this year. Some experts believe that if the trend continues for much longer, further consolidation (合并)in the automotive sector is (20) ________.