Part I Listening Task

Script for the recording:

I believe in leaving work at five o'clock. In a nation that operates on a staunch Protestant work ethic, this belief could be considered radical. Working only 40 hours a week? I just don't know many people who punch out at five o'clock anymore.
My father tried to teach me the importance of hard work, long hours and dedication to a career. But then there are the things he taught me unintentionally, like when he arrived home from work for the last time and crawled up the stairs.
My father, a self-employed sales trainer, was that sick, that tired. Still, he insisted on traveling to honor his commitment to give a seminar. He probably earned a lot of money that day, and he paid the price: He returned to the hospital soon after and was dead within three months, at age 58.
It's been 10 years since I saw my father come home that night, and since then, I've thought a lot about work. I've decided something: I will never crawl up the stairs. As much as I love my job as a newspaper reporter, I will never work myself into the ground, literally or figuratively.

After listening
1. people should leave work at five; radical
2. was very sick and tired
3. Overwork
4. loves; a newspaper reporter; work herself to death

Part II Reading Task

Text A
Comprehension

Possible answers to content questions:
 1. We used to think that technology would make our lives easier.
 2. Inventions such as the motorcar and the aircraft have offered us unimaginable levels of personal mobility. Washing machines have freed women from having to toil over the laundry.
 3. According to the author, aside from allowing work to spread into our leisure time, technology has also added the new burden of dealing with faxes, e-mails and voicemails.
 4. A couple of centuries ago, nearly all the world's accumulated learning could be contained in the heads of a few philosophers. Today, those heads could not hope to accommodate more than a tiny fraction of the information generated in a single day.
 5. His purpose is to keep him up with what is going on in his specialized field —entomology.
 6. The confusion of endless choice.
 7. No. About half the population is suffering under the stresses and strains of life today.
 8. According to Paul Edwards, lots of people have a sense that if you're not stressed, you're not succeeding. Therefore everyone wants to have a little bit of this stress to show they're an important person.
 9. The average American has gained five hours a week in free time since the mid-1960s. The gains are unevenly distributed between the sexes.
 10. It is meant that there are more and more debates on how many years people should work and whether long hours or shorter hours working policies should be adopted, etc.
 11. Here Godbey makes a comparison. The kid in the candy store is more often than not attracted by a wide variety of good candies and doesn't know which to choose. This is true of us, too. There are so many good things to do, but we don't have enough time to do them all.
 12. The author points out that a more successful remedy may lie in understanding the problem rather than evading it. We should have “fewer desires” and “set boundaries for ourselves.”

Text Organization

1.
Parts Paragraphs Main Ideas
Part One Paras 1 -11 The author gives three reasons why we feel so time-pressed today.
Part Two Paras 12 -18 Not everyone is time-stressed, and in the case of Americans they have actually gained more free time in the past decade.
Part Three Paras 19 -23 The perception of time-famine has triggered a variety of reactions.
Part Four Paras 24 -28 The author pins down the crux (症结)of the problem and puts forward a remedy for the stress we feel.

2.
1) The motorcar brings more traffic problems than it promises to solve.
2) The aircraft creates a high demand for time-consuming journeys that we never dreamed of.
3) The washing machine, contrary to our expectations, multiplies the hours spent on washing and ironing.
4) Instead of making our lives easier, technology goes so far as to cram extra work into our leisure time.
5) Technology produces the new burden of dealing with faxes, e-mails and voicemails.
6) Technology eats further into our time by forcing us to handle software glitches on computers and filling our heads with useless information from the Internet.

Language Sense Enhancement

(1) understanding (2) Within the confines (3) reasonably (4) by nature
(5) limitless possibilities (6) our aim (7) fewer desires (8) play by themselves
(9) set boundaries (10) or

Vocabulary

I.

1.
1) appliances 2) comparative 3) multiply 4) distribution 5) prosperity
6) decorate 7) famine 8) large quantities of/a large quantity of
9) streamline 10) fax 11) pointed the way to 12) bewildered

2.
1) eat into 2) cling to 3) stand out/stood out 4) wears away
5) set about 6) switch off 7) will be turned loose 8) poured in

3.
1) The unemployment rate is forecast to be below average next year, which at the moment is 4 percent.
2) Efforts to enter the building and find the baby girl proved futile as rescuers were driven out by the heat and flames.
3) The board was urged to divert some of its attention from expanding production and get more involved with issues of market demand.
4) Losing just one or two items of expensive clothing can really eat heavily into your profits when you are selling suits at ?900 and dresses at ?2,000.
5) She has toiled endlessly over the exercise machine for the last twenty years in order to keep her body in shape.
4.
1) The recent public reaction to a murder case involving a tycoon killed in his office shows growing discontent of ordinary people with the rich. The killing provoked little outrage and few expressions of sympathy for the victim.

2) At the National Tax Convention, a number of speakers mentioned the difference between avoiding tax and evading tax. As they explained, avoiding tax is the act of doing everything possible within the confines of the Tax Law in order to reduce your tax burden. And evading tax is the act of illegally paying less than (or not paying at all) the full amount of tax required by law.

3) Has the ever-increasing pace of modern living gotten you down? Has the quest for more money and more excitement become a burden in your life? Surveys show that today a lot of Americans feel weary of being knocked backwards and sideways just because they are always on the go/seem forever on the go. In their crazy search for fulfillment, they've gotten themselves into situations in which they are not able to cope.

II. Confusable Words

1. 1) nervousness 2) tension 3) stress, stress 4) tension
2. 1) honorary 2) Honorable 3) honorable 4) honorary
 5) honorable 6) Honorary

III. Usage

1) Dealing with the extinction crisis is no simple matter. Is it sensible, we may ask, to spend large sums of money to save some species— be it an elephant or an orchid —in a nation in which a large proportion of the population is living below the poverty line?
2) This new technology could be used anywhere large numbers of people need to be quickly screened — at airports, train stations, bus terminals or border crossings. However, experts suspect, there is also the risk that people will learn to fool the machine the same way they try to fool polygraph (测谎器) readings by controlling their breath or taking drugs to relax themselves.
3) With a high percentage of marriages ending in divorce, often due to financial difficulties, you would say that money is a big factor in making a good marriage. But, believe it or not, it isn't money that ensures you a happy marriage; it is your philosophy of life that does.
4) Not all the risks on the Internet are sexual, you know. Sites promoting violence are just a click away, and may include instructions for making bombs and other destructive devices.

Comprehensive Exercises

I. Cloze

1.
(1) switch off (2) obliged (3) on the go (4) cope (5) shortage
(6) large quantity of (7) pouring in (8) by nature (9) fraction (10) futile
2.
1) advantage 2) wisely
3) faithfully 4) waking
5) includes 6) schedule
7) sticking 8) priorities
9) set 10) respect

II. Translation

1.
1) They are exploring the new frontiers of medical science in an attempt to find remedies for incurable diseases/ cures for diseases that are beyond remedy so far.
2) Her unique teaching methods apart, Ms Wilson, my math teacher, never tried to cram knowledge into my head.
3) The regular weather forecast by the Central TV Station keeps us up with the changes of weather wherever we go on a trip.
4) The appalling explosion started a big fire and caused the partial collapse of the building.
5) In the modern world, there are more ways than ever to waste away time, and all kinds of distractions are eating into our precious time.

2.
Today we are under constant pressure to work longer hours, to produce more, and to possess more. Lots of people hold the wrong perception that happiness lies in working hard and earning well/good money.
Many women today feel the same stress to work and get ahead and, at the same time, to nurture their offspring and shoulder the burden of domestic responsibilities.
Research shows that workaholism tends to distance us from our immediate families. It forces us to toil longer and longer hours, leaving a minute fraction of our time to be physically and emotionally available to our loved ones. Intimacy among family members is doomed to die in the process.

Part III Home Reading Task

Text B
Comprehension Check

1.c 2. a 3. b 4. b 5. d 6. c

Translation

1. 瞬时性主宰着一切。人们发表政治演说时，民意调查人员在听众尚未完全形成看法前，就利用电子装置进行当场测定；快餐店增设了快速通道。
2. 我们人类选择了速度，凭借着速度而繁荣兴旺——其情况超过我们普遍承认的程度。我们快节奏工作、娱乐的本领赋予我们力量。我们为此兴奋不已。
3. 随着脑海中充斥着的这种多路并进状态而来的是一种幸福感。我们总是宁要狂热地工作也不要无聊乏味地生活。“人类从未，也永远不会选择放慢速度，” 历史学家斯蒂芬 ? 克恩说。
4. 如果你抓紧干，你就很可能在技术驱动的世界上获得成功。社会学家也发现，富裕程度和教育程度的提高带来对时间的焦虑。我们总认为自己时间太少。

Language Practice

1.
1) c 2) f 3) e 4) h 5) g 6) a 7) d 8) b

2.
1) browse 2) suspended 3) no wonder 4) under pressure
5) run the risk of 6) opt 7) parallel 8) confess
9) on the wing 10) waterproof 11) thrilled 12) captioned

Part IV Comprehensive Language Practice

Model paper
 The Way to Slow Time Down
Time is peculiar. At first sight it would seem that one second must last as long as another, no more, no less. Yet, in terms of our experience nothing could be further from the truth. Often time seems to fly past; before we know it the end of the week has arrived again. Is there any way to slow it down? There is a character in one of Joseph Heller’s novels who tries to make his life seem longer by doing boring and repetitive things, in the belief that this will make time go slower. Unfortunately, he was quite wrong.
The way to slow time down is to do many new and interesting things. Repeat the same old pattern week after week and time flies past. Take a break from routine, go on holiday to somewhere completely new or take up a fresh task, and the days begin to pass more slowly. So, if you want to feel as if time is not passing you by, break up your routine and do something new.
 (174 words)