考前冲刺试题三.docVIP

PAGE  PAGE 6 ６级考前冲刺试题三 Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Can Knowledge Change One’s Destiny? You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below. 1. 有人相信知识能改变命运 2. 有人则认为当今社会光靠知识已经很难改变命运 3. 我认为…… Can Knowledge Change One’s Destiny? Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes) Comparing Yourself to Others: It’s Not All Bad “To compare is to despair,” the saying goes, and I’ve generally found it to be true. If I try hard enough (and sometimes even if I don’t) I can usually find someone who performs better or has more. And I can feel bad about it. I objectively know that my own life is pretty good, but this upward comparison, as economists and psychologists call it, can somehow dim my own accomplishments. “Comparison is rife with danger, but it’s understandable why we do it,” said Heidi Grant Halvorson, a social psychologist. “We’re human beings and we naturally seek information.” One way to get information, Ms. Halvorson said, is to turn to experts. Another way is to look at those around us. And often what we see in our neighborhood or community is more important, in our minds, than anything else. Economic studies have shown, for example, that once they make a certain amount of money to cover basics, most people care more about relative, rather than absolute, income. That is, most of us feel better if we make, say, $100,000 if the majority of our neighbors make $75,000 than if we earn $150,000 when most of our friends bring in $200,000. One such study, “Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well-Being,” published in 2005 in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, found that “higher earnings of neighbors were associated with lower levels of self-reported happiness.” The paper cites the oft-quoted saying by the economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill: “Men do not desire to be rich, but to be richer than othe