Those who doubt the power of human beings to change Earth’s climate should look to the Arctic, and shiver.There is no need to pore over records of temperatures and atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations. The process is starkly visible in the shrinkage of the ice that covers the Arctic ocean. In the past 30 years, the minimum coverage of summer ice has fallen by half; its volume has fallen by three-quarters. On current trends, the Arctic ocean will be largely ice-free in summer by 2040. 

        Climate-change sceptics will shrug. Some may even celebrate: an ice-free Arctic ocean promises a shortcut for shipping between the Pacific coast of Asia and the Atlantic coasts of Europe and the Americas, and the possibility of prospecting for perhaps a fifth of the planet’s undiscovered supplies of oil and natural gas. Such reactions are profoundly misguided. Never mind that the low price of oil and gas means searching for them in the Arctic is no longer worthwhile. Or that the much-vaunted sea passages are likely to carry only a trickle of trade. The right response is fear.The Arctic is not merely a bellwether of matters climatic, but an actor in them. 

        The current period of global warming that Earth is undergoing is caused by certain gases in the atmosphere,notably carbon dioxide. These admit heat, in the form of sunlight, but block its radiation back into space, in the form of longer-wave-length infra-red. That traps heat in the air, the water and the land. More carbon dioxide equals more warming--a simple equation. Except it is not simple. A number of feedback loops complicate matters. Some dampen warming down; some speed it up. Two in the Arctic may speed it up quite a lot. 

        One is that seawater is much darker than ice. It absorbs heat rather than reflecting it back into space. That melts more ice, which leaves more seawater exposed, which melts more ice. And so on. This helps explain why the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet. The deal on climate change made in Paris in 2015 is meant to stop Earth’s surface temperature rising by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. In the unlikely event that it is fully implemented, winter temperatures over the Arctic ocean will still warm by between 5°C and 9°C compared with their 1986-2005 average. 

        The second feedback loop concerns not the water but the land. In the Arctic much of this is permafrost. That frozen soil locks up a lot of organic material. If the permafrost melts its organic contents can escape as a result of fire or decay, in the form of carbon dioxide or methane (which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂). This will speedup global warming directly--and the soot from the fires, when it settles on the ice, will darken it and thus speed its melting still more.

   The Consumer Protection Act in Taiwan was enacted on January 11, 1994. The Act demonstrated the government’s efforts to protect consumers’ rights and interests. The Consumer Protection Commission, the current Consumer Protection Committee, 11 the supervisor and coordinator for the various consumer protection organizations that put this law into practice. In order to improve the well-being of consumers in Taiwan, the Committee advocates fair trade and 12 pricing for goods and services. The Committee also organizes educational programs to raise consumer awareness, and is active in assisting consumers involved in 13 with businesses or manufacturers.

 Since its establishment, the Consumer Protection Committee has taken measures that emphasize product safety and sanitation. These measures also ensure that all labels and advertisements 14 to regulations. In addition, the Committee collaborates with various international consumer protection organizations to respond to problems involving cross-border trade and business. 15 its regulatory power and administrative resources, the Committee plays a crucial role in protecting consumers in Taiwan.

    In 2015, President Obama of the USA signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), replacing the Bush-era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) that had been in effect since 2001. This new Act provides states with more decision-making power regarding curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Below are some bigpicture ideas influencing many states as they approach the assessment task.

   One important idea is flexibility. For years, states have used standardized K-12 assessments, similar to the SAT and ACT for college application, to measure student achievement. They are easy to use, but they fail to give a complete picture of how a student is progressing. Thus, states are rethinking one-sizefits-all standardized assessments and are instead considering personalized, student-centered assessments in schools. Obviously, the task is difficult and time-consuming. Fortunately, modern technology can help solve this dilemma. For instance, computer adaptive assessments can automatically adjust questions based on a student’s performances on the previous questions. This mechanism prevents the computer from giving questions that are obviously too easy or too difficult for the student. It thus allows teachers to quickly assess a student’s level of understanding and provide instant feedback to help in the learning process. 

   Another idea is multi-subject testing. Several states have started to incorporate subjects beyond the traditional math and reading items in their K-12 assessments. All 50 states include tests on science at least twice prior to senior high school, and some are now starting to include social studies, government, or economics. Some states are also moving toward assessing multiple subjects on one test, for example, reading and social studies.

  A third idea is the emphasis on students’ learning process. In pursuit of a student-centered approach, many states are putting more emphasis on assessments throughout the learning process rather than on traditional end-of-year summative tests. Teachers are encouraged to accumulate data at different points in their students’ learning process. These data together present a more complete picture of a student’s learning. 

  The last idea regards the purpose of assessment. Assessment should be used to inform both teachers’ instruction and students’ learning. Teachers can modify their teaching based on students’ performance on tests; students can identify their own problems and make plans for improvement.

I am one of those people who spend much time in coffeehouses talking to and observing others. One time I met half a dozen gentlemen who were talking about the different kinds of people in Europe. One of these men stated that he had all of the wonderful qualities of the English in his person. He went on to say that the Dutch were all greedy and hungry for money. The French were not to be trusted. The Germans were a bunch of drunks. The Spanish were too proud. In bravery, kindness, generosity, and every other virtue the English were better than the rest of the world. The rest of the company, all Englishmen, accepted his statements as truth. I sat there and said nothing, so a companion of mine asked me if what that man said was not true. I replied that I could not judge until I had spent some time in those countries. Perhaps I might find that the Dutch were thrifty and saved their money, that the French were very polite, that the Germans are hard-working, that the Spanish were very calm and quite, and even that the English, although brave and generous, might be too bold and free-swinging when things went well and too sad when they did not. Soon after I said this, I lost the goodwill of my companions, and they all left me alone. 

 I paid my bill and went home. There I began to think about the silliness of national prejudice. I thought of the ancient wise man, when asked the country of his citizenship, replied that he was a “citizen of the world.” We have now become so English, French, Dutch, Spanish, or German that we are no longer citizens of the world. We are so much the citizens of one small society that we no longer think of ourselves as members of that grand society that includes all of humankind.

        Reviews are where an experience meets ideas. You go to a concert, a movie, an art exhibition, a restaurant,and it makes you think. Maybe the experience is a  21  for a brand-new idea; maybe it  22       somethingyou’ve been thinking about for a while. It becomes something worth writing about. 

       The job of the reviewer is to get both the experience and the ideas into words — and into proportion. Insome ways, a review is the same as reporting: The facts have to be correct and presented in a coherent way.And in some ways, a review is  23  reporting: your subjective experience and your reactions —intellectual, emotional, visceral — are a big part of it. 

        A review is not about the reviewer. A reader does not care about when the reviewer got to a location orhis mood or the weather that day. It’s about what a person experienced when he met his work head-on with fullattention: what his knowledge tells him about the work, what his immediate experience added to that and wherethe work can lead next. You might be writing about something your readers don’t know about  24  youhave discovered; help them share that sense of discovery. Or you might be bringing a new  25  tosomething familiar. Make it convincing. It’s about feeling, learning, thinking, judging, and making all that vividto your reader.

To: Grace Yang
Date: 6 September
Subject: Invitation to job interview

Dear Grace,

Thank you for your application for the position of sales manager.
We would like to invite you for an interview at 10 a.m. on Monday 21 September at
our office at The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London.

You will meet with our head of sales, Susan Park, and the interview will last for about
45 minutes. During this time, you will have the opportunity to find out more about the
position and learn more about our company.

Please bring your CV and references to the interview. You will also need to show a
form of ID at reception to receive a visitor’s pass. Please ask for me as soon as you
arrive. If you have any questions or you wish to reschedule, please call me on
555-1234 or email me by 12 September.

I look forward to meeting you.

Best Regards,

Anna Green

Human Resources Assistant

　　The Stanford Marshmallow experiment is a psychological experiment to __(31)__ children’s ability to control their impulses. The idea was to see __(32)__ the difference was between children who managed to control their impulses and those who could not. The results showed that those who succeeded in __(33)__ the immediate temptation to eat the marshmallow were able to perform better at exams and __(34)__ in other aspects of their lives than those who had grabbed the marshmallow directly. The researchers were also able to show that the impulsive group also seemed to suffer more __(35)__ stress and problems in relationship in later life.