For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay explaining Why it is unwise to put all your eggs in one basket. You can give examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

Why it is unwise to put all your eggs in one basket.

    Tests may be the most unpopular part of academic life. Students hate them because they produce fear and (1) _______ about being evaluated, and a focus on grades instead of learning for learning's sake.
    But tests are also valuable. A well-constructed test (2) _______ what you know and what you still need to learn. Tests help you see how your performance (3) _______ that of others. And knowing that you'll be tested on (4) _______ material is certainly likely to (5) _______ you to learn the material more thoroughly.
    However, there's another reason you might dislike tests: You may assume that tests have the power to (6) _______ your worth as a person. If you do badly on a test, you may be tempted to believe that you've received some (7) _______ information about yourself from the professor, information that says you're a failure in some significant way.
    This is a dangerous-and wrong-headed-assumption. If you do badly on a test, it doesn't mean you're a bad person or stupid. Or that you'll never do better again, and that your life is (8) _______. If you don't do well on a test, you're the same person you were before you took the test-no better, no worse. You just did badly on a test. That's it.
    (9) _______, tests are not a measure of your value as an individual-they are a measure only of how well and how much you studied. Tests are tools; they are indirect and (10) _______ measures of what we know.

　　Millions of Americans are entering their 60s and are more concerned than ever about retirement. They know they need to save, but how much? And what exactly are they saving for-to spend more time (1) _______ the grandkids, go traveling, or start another career? It turns out that husbands and wives may have (2) _______ different ideas about the subject.
　　The deepest divide is in the way spouses envisage their lifestyle in their later years. Fidelity Investments Inc. found 41 percent of the 500 couples it surveyed (3) _______ on whether both or at least one spouse will work in retirement. Wives are generally right regarding their husbands' retirement age, but men (4) _______ the age their wives will be when they stop working. And husbands are slightly more (5) _______ about their standard of living than wives are.
　　Busy juggling（穷于应付） careers and families, more couples don't take the time to sit down, (6) _______ or together, and think about what they would like to do 5, 10 or 20 years from now. They (7) _______ they are on the same page, but the (8) _______ is they have avoided even talking about it.
　　If you are self-employed or in a job that doesn't have a standard retirement age, you may be more apt to delay thinking about these issues. It is often a (9) _______ retirement date that provides the catalyst (催化剂) to start planning. Getting laid off or accepting an early-retirement (10) _______ can force your hand. But don't wait until you get a severance (遣散费) check to begin planning.

What If Middle-Class Jobs Disappear?

　　A) The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. However, two years after the official end of the recession, few Americans would say that economic troubles are behind us. The unemployment rate, in particular, remains above 9%. Some labor market indicators, such as the proportion of long-term unemployed, are worse now than for any postwar recession.
　　B) There are two widely circulated narratives to explain what's going on. The Keynesian narrative is that there has been a major drop in aggregate demand. According to this narrative, the slump can be largely cured by using monetary and fiscal (财政的) stimulus. The main anti-Keynesian narrative is that businesses are suffering from uncertainty and over-regulation. According to this narrative, the slump can be cured by having the government commit to and follow a more hands-off approach.
　　C) I want to suggest a third interpretation. Without ruling out a role for aggregate demand or for the regulatory environment, I wish to suggest that structural change is an important factor in the current rate of high unemployment. The economy is in a state of transition, in which the middle-class jobs that emerged after World War II have begun to decline. As Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee put it in a recent e-book Race Against the Machine: "The root of our problems is not that we're in a great recession, or a great stagnation (停滞)，but rather that we are in the early throes (阵痛) of a great restructuring."
　　D) In fact, I believe that the Great Depression of the 1930s can also be interpreted in part as an economic transition. The impact of the internal combustion engine (内燃机) and the small electric motor on farming and manufacturing reduced the value of uneducated laborers. Instead, by the 1950s,  a middle class of largely clerical (以事文秘工作的) workers was the most significant part of the labor force. Between 1930 and 1950, the United, States economy underwent a great transition. Demand fell for human effort such as lifting, squeezing, and hammering. Demand increased for workers who could read and follow directions. The evolutionary process eventually changed us from a nation of laborers to a nation of clerks.
　　E) The proportion of employment classified as "clerical workers" grew from 5.2% in 1910 to a peak of 19.3% in 1980. (However, by 2000 this proportion had edged down to 17.4%.) Overall, workers classified as clerical workers, technical workers, managers and officials exceeded 50% of the labor force by 2000. Corresponding declines took place in the manual occupations. Workers classified as laborers, other than farm hands or miners, peaked at 11.4% of the labor force in 1920 but were barely 6% by 1950 and less than 4% by 2000. Farmers and farm laborers fell from 33% of the labor force in 1910 to less than 15% by 1950 and only l.2% in 2000.
　　F) The introduction of the tractor and improvements in the factory rapidly reduced the demand for uneducated workers. By the 1930s, a marginal farm hand could not produce enough to justify his employment. Sharecropping, never much better than a subsistence occupation, was no longer viable (可行的). Meanwhile, machines were replacing manufacturing occupations like cigar rolling and glass blowing for light bulbs.
　　G) The structural-transition interpretation of the unemployment problem of the 1930s would be that the demand for uneducated workers in the United States had fallen, but the supply remained high. The high school graduation rate was only 8.8% in 1912 and still just 29% in 1931. By 1950, it had reached 59%. With a new generation of workers who had completed high school, the mismatch between skills and jobs had been greatly reduced.
　　H) What took place after World War II not the revival of a 1920s economy, with its small farming units, urban manufacturing, and plurality of laborers. Instead, the 1950s saw the creation of a new suburban economy, with a plurality of white-collar workers. With an expanded transportation and communications infrastructure (基础设施), businesses needed telephone operators, shipping clerks and similar occupations. If you could read, follow simple instructions, and settle into a routine, you could find a job in the post-war economy.
　　I) The trend away from manual labor has continued. Even within the manufacturing sector, the share of production and non-supervisory workers in manufacturing employment went from over 85% just after World War II to less than 70% in more recent years. To put this another way, the proportion of white-collar work in manufacturing has doubled over the past 50 years. On the factory floor itself, work has become less physically demanding. Instead, it requires more cognitive skills and the ability to understand and carry out well-defined procedures.
　　J) As noted earlier, the proportion of clerical workers in the economy peaked in 1980. By that date, computers and advanced communications equipment had already begun to affect telephone operations and banking. The rise of the personal computer and the Internet has widened the impact of these technologies to include nearly every business and industry.
　　K) The economy today differs from that of a generation ago. Mortgage and consumer loan underwriters (风险评估人) have been replaced by credit scoring. Record stores have been replaced by music downloads. Book stores are closing, while sales of books on electronic readers have increased. Data entry has been moved off shore. Routine customer support also has been outsourced (外包) overseas.
　　L) These trends serve to limit the availability of well-defined jobs. If a job can be characterized by a precise set of instructions, then that job is a candidate to be automated or outsourced to modestly educated workers in developing countries. The result is what David Autor calls the polarization of the American job market. Autor and various research collaborators have polarization of the American job market.
　　M) Using the latest Census Bureau data, Matthew Slaughter found that from 2000 to 2010 the real earnings of college graduates (with no advanced degree) fell by more in percentage terms than the earnings of high school graduates. In fact, over this period the only education category to show an increase in earnings was those with advanced degrees.
　　N) The outlook for mid-skill jobs would not appear to be bright. Communications technology and computer intelligence continue to improve, putting more occupations at risk. For example, many people earn a living as drivers, including trucks and taxicabs. However, the age of driverless vehicles appears to be moving closer. Another example is in the field of education. In the fall of 2011, an experiment with an online course in artificial intelligence conducted by two Stanford professors drew tens of thousands of registrants（报名者）．This increases the student-teacher ratio by a factor of close to a thousand. Imagine the number of teaching jobs that might be eliminated if this could be done for math, economics, chemistry, and so on.
　　O) It's important to bear in mind that when we offer a structural interpretation of unemployment, a "loss of jobs" means an increase in productivity. Traditionally, economists have argued that productivity increases are a good thing, even though they may cause unemployment for some workers in the short run. In the long run, the economy does not run out of jobs. Rather, new jobs emerge as old jobs disappear. The story we tell is that average well-being rises, and the more people are able to adapt, the more widespread the improvement becomes.

　　Texting has long been bemoaned (哀叹) as the downfall of the written word, "penmanship for illiterates," as one critic called it. To which the proper response is LOL. Texting properly isn't writing at all. It's a "spoken" language that is getting richer and more complex by the year.
　　First, some historical perspective. Writing was only invented 5,500 years ago, whereas language probably traces back at least 80,000 years. Thus talking came first; writing is just a craft that came along later. As such, the first writing was based on the way people talk, with short sentences. However, while talking is largely subconscious and rapid, writing is deliberate and slow. Over time, writers took advantage of this and started crafting long-winded sentences such as this one: "The whole engagement lasted above 12 hours, till the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was given by the principal leaders and..."
　　No one talks like that casually-or should. But it is natural to desire to do so for special occasions. In the old days, we didn't much write like talking because there was no mechanism to reproduce the speed of conversation. But texting and instant messaging do-and a revolution has begun. It involves the crude mechanics of writing, but in its economy, spontaneity and even vulgarity, texting is actually a new kind of talking, with its own kind of grammar and conventions.
　　Take LOL. It doesn't actually mean "laughing out loud" in a literal sense anymore. LOL has evolved into something much subtler and sophisticated and is used even when nothing is remotely amusing. Jocelyn texts "where have you been?" and Annabelle texts back "LOL at the library studying for two hours." LOL signals basic empathy (同感) between texters, easing tension and creating a sense of equality. Instead of having a literal meaning, it does something-conveying an attitude-just like the -ed ending conveys past tense rather than "meaning" anything. LOL of all things, is grammar.
　　Of course no one thinks about that consciously. But then most of communication operates without being noticed. Over time, the meaning of a word or an expression drifts-meat used to mean any kind of food, silly used to mean, believe it or not, blessed.
　　Civilization, then, is fine-people banging away on their smartphones are fluently using a code separate from the one they use in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting is ruining composition skills. Worldwide people speak differently from the way they write, and texting -quick, casual and only intended to be read once-is actually a way of talking with your fingers.

　　It's possible to admire Oprah Winfrey and still wish Harvard hadn't awarded her an honorary doctor of law degree and the commencement (毕业典礼) speaker spot at yesterday's graduation.  There's no question Oprah's achievements place her in the temple of American success stories. Talent, charm, and an exceptional work ethic have rarely hurled anyone as far as they have this former abused teenage mother from rural Mississippi who became one of the world's most successful entertainment icons and the first African-American female billionaire.
　　Honorary degrees are often conferred on non-academic leaders in the arts, business, and politics. Harvard's list in recent years has included Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, Meryl Streep, and David Souter. But Oprah's particular brand of celebrity is not a good fit for the values of a university whose motto (座右铭), Veritas, means truth. Oprah's passionate advocacy extends, unfortunately, to a hearty embrace of fake science. Most notoriously, Oprah's validation of Jenny McCarthy's claim that vaccines cause autism (自闲症) has no doubt contributed to much harm through the foolish avoidance of vaccines.
　　Famous people are entitled to a few failings, like the rest of us, and the choice of commencement speakers often reflects a balance of institutional priorities and aspirations. Judging from our conversations with many students, Oprah was a widely popular choice.
　　But this vote of confidence in Oprah sends a troubling message at precisely the time when American universities need to do more to advance the cause of reason. As former Dean of Harvard College, Harry Lewis, noted in a blog post about his objections, "It seems very odd for Harvard to honor such a high profile popularizer of the irrational... at a time when political and religious nonsense so jeopardize the rule of reason in this allegedly enlightened democracy and around the world."
　　As America's oldest and most visible university, Harvard has a special opportunity to convey its respect for science not only through its research and teaching programs but also in its public affirmation of evidence-based inquiry.
　　Unfortunately, many American universities seem awfully busy protecting their brand name and not nearly busy enough protecting the pursuit of knowledge. A recent article in The Harvard Crimson noted the shocking growth of Harvard's public relations arm in the last five years and it questioned whether a focus on risk management and avoiding controversy was really the best outward-looking face of this great institution.
　　As American research universities begin to resemble profit centers and entertainment complexes, it's easy to lose sight of their primary mission: to produce and spread knowledge. This mission depends on traditions of rational discourse and vigorous defense of the scientific method. Oprah Winfrey's honorary doctorate was a step in the wrong direction.

    中文热词通常反映社会变化和文化，有些在外国媒体上愈来愈流行。例如，土豪(tuhao)和大妈(dama)都是老词，但已获取了新的意义。
    土豪以前指欺压佃户和仆人的乡村地主，现在用于指花钱如流水或喜欢炫耀财富的人。也就是说，土豪有钱，但没有品位。大妈是对中年妇女的称呼，但现在特指不久前金价下跌时大量购买黄金的中国妇女。
    土豪和大妈可能会被收入新版牛津(Oxford)英语词典。至今已有约120个中文词被加进了牛津英语词典，成了英语语言的一部分。