问答题 Passage 2 Life Beyond Earth　　A  We all have our suppositions, our scenarios. The late astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that there are a million technological civilizations in our galaxy alone. His more conservative colleague Frank Drake offers the number 10,000. John Oro, a pioneering comet researcher, calculates that the Milky Way is sprinkled with a hundred civilizations. And finally there are skeptics like Ben Zuckerman, an astronomer at UCLA, who thinks we may as well be alone in this galaxy if not in the universe. 　　B  All the estimates are highly speculative. The fact is that there is no conclusive evidence of any life beyond Earth. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, as various pundits have wisely noted. But still we don’t have any solid knowledge about a single alien microbe, a solitary spore, much less the hubcap from a passing alien starship. 　　C  Our ideas about extraterrestrial life are what Sagan called “plausibility arguments,” usually shot through with unknowns, hunches, ideologies, and random ought-to-bes. Even if we convince ourselves that there must be life out there, we confront a second problem, which is that we don’t know anything about that life. We don’t know how truly alien it is. We don’t know if it’s built on a foundation of carbon atoms. We don’t know if it requires a liquid-water medium, if it swims or flies or burrows. 　　D  Despite the enveloping nebula of uncertainties, extraterrestrial life has become an increasingly exciting area of scientific inquiry. The field is called exobiology or astrobiology or bioastronomy—every few years it seems as though the name has been changed to protect the ignorant. 　　E  Whatever it’s called, this is a science infused with optimism. We now know that the universe may be aswarm with planets. Since 1995 astronomers have detected at least 22 planets orbiting other stars. NASA hopes to build a telescope called the Terrestrial Planet Finder to search for Earth-like planets, examining them for the atmospheric signatures of a living world. In the past decade organisms have been found thriving on our own planet in bizarre, hostile environments. If microbes can live in the pores of rock deep beneath the earth or at the rim of a scalding Yellowstone spring, then they might find a place like Mars not so shabby. 　　F  Mars is in the midst of a full-scale invasion from Earth, from polar landers to global surveyors to rovers looking for fossils. A canister of Mars rocks will be rocketed back to Earth in the year 2008, parachuting into the Utah desert for scrutiny by scientists in a carefully sealed lab. In the coming years probes will also go around and, at some point, into Jupiter’s moon Europa. That icy world shows numerous signs of having a subsurface ocean—and could conceivably harbor a dark, cold biosphere. 　　G  The quest for an alien microbe is supplemented by a continuing effort to find something large, intelligent, and communicative. SETI—the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence—has not yielded a confirmed signal from an alien civilization in 40 years of experiments, but the signal-processing technology grows more sophisticated each year. The optimists figure it’s only a matter of time before we tune in the right channel. 　　H  No one knows when—or if—one of these investigations might make a breakthrough. There’s a fair bit of boosterism surrounding the entire field, but I’d bet the breakthrough is many years, if not decades, away. The simple truth: Extraterrestrial life, by definition, is not conveniently located. 　　I  But there are other truths that sustain the search for alien organisms. One is that, roughly speaking, the universe looks habitable. Another is that life radiates information about itself—that, if nothing else, it usually leaves a residue or an imprint. If the universe contains an abundance of life, that life is not likely to remain forever in the realm of the unknown. 　　J  Contact with an alien civilization would be an epochal and culturally challenging event, but exobiologists would settle gladly for the discovery of a tiny fossil, a mere remnant of extraterrestrial biochemistry. One example. One data point to add to the one we have—Earth life. That’s what we need to begin the long process of putting human existence in its true cosmic context. 　　Complete the sentences. 　　Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. 　　Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. 　　1. Experts are approaching Mars extensively in the search of ______. 　　2 Jupiter’s moon Europa will be in the analysed for it is conceived to embrace a ______ probably hostile to life. 　　3. Although no clear signals have been received by human being, advances made in ______ has provided some optimism after 40 years’ experiments. 　　4. The reason why extraterrestrial life cannot be immediately found is that it is not readily ______. 　　5. The look for alien organism can still be sustained because it would still give off traces such as a ______.

问答题 Practice 3 　　You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. 　　The diagram below shows the life cycle of the salmon. 　　Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. 　　Write at least 150 words.

问答题 Practice 3 　　You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. 　　The pie charts below give information about the household expenditure of two average U.S. families in different years. 　　Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. 　　Write at least 150 words

问答题 Passage 3 Sydney 2000 Olympics　　The cost of staging the year 2000 Olympics in Sydney was estimated to be a staggering $960 million, but the city was preparing to reap the financial benefits that ensued from holding such an international event by emulating the commercial success of Los Angeles, the only city yet to have made a demonstrable profit from the Games in 1984. 　　At precisely 4:20 am on Friday the 24th of September 1993, it was announced that Sydney had beaten four other competing cities around the world, and Australians everywhere, not only Sydneysiders, were justifiably proud of the result. But, if Sydney had lost the bid, would the taxpayers of NSW and of Australia have approved of governments spending millions of dollars in a failed and costly exercise? 　　There may have been some consolation in the fact that the bid came in $1 million below the revised budget and $5 million below the original budget of $29 million formulated in mid-1991. However, the final cost was the considerable sum of $24 million, the bulk of which was paid for by corporate and community contributions, merchandising, licensing, and the proceeds of lotteries, with the NSW Government, which had originally been willing to spend up to $10 million, contributing some $2 million. The Federal Government’s grant of $5 million meant, in effect, that the Sydney bid was financed by every Australian taxpayer. 　　Prior to the announcement of the winning city, there was considerable debate about the wisdom of taking financial risks of this kind at a time of economic recession. Others argued that 70 per cent of the facilities were already in place, and all were on government-owned land, removing some potential areas of conflict which troubled previous Olympic bidders. The former NSW Premier, Mr. Nick Greiner, went on record as saying that the advantage of having the Games…“is not that you are going to have $7.4 billion in extra gross domestic product over the next 14 years…I think the real point of the Games is the psychological change, the catalyst of confidence…apart from the other more obvious reasons, such as the building of sporting facilities, tourism, and things of that nature.” 　　However, the dubiousness of the benefits that Melbourne, an unsuccessful bidder for the 1988 Olympic Games, received at a time when the State of Victoria was still in economic turmoil meant many corporate bodies were unenthusiastic. 　　There is no doubt that Sydney’s seductive physical charms caused the world’s media to compare the city favorably to its rivals Beijing, Berlin, Manchester, and Istanbul. Mr. Godfrey Santer, the Australian Tourist Commission’s Manager of Corporate Planning Services, stated that soon after the bid was made, intense media focus was already having a beneficial effect on in-bound tourism. 　　Developers and those responsible for community development projects eagerly pointed to the improvements taking place to the existing infrastructure of the city, the creation of employment, and especially the building of sporting facilities, all of which meet the needs of the community and help to attract more tourists. At Homebush Bay $300 million was spent providing the twin athletic arenas and the “high-tech” Aquatic Centre. However, perhaps the most impressive legacy was the new attitude shown towards both industrial relations and environmental problems. The high-profile nature of the bid; and the perception that it must proceed smoothly created a unique attitude of cooperation between the workforce and employers involved in the construction of the Olympic Village at Homebush Bay. The improvements included the lack of strikes, the breaking down of demarcation barriers, and the completion of projects within budget and ahead of time. 　　The Secretary of the NSW Labor Council, Mr. Michael Easson, was quoted as saying… “What we’ve achieved should become the model for the rest of the building industry…great cooperation, good management, improvement in relations between employers and employees, and a feeling of optimism …”. The lasting benefits will be first-rate sporting facilities at Homebush Bay and an industrial relations model which should impact on the rest of the building industry. 　　Improved negotiations and cooperation over the bid between the Greenpeace environmental group and the State Government also saw a new respect develop on both sides. Suddenly, environmentalists were no longer regarded as being radically opposed to all development and neither was the State Government perceived as inconsiderate towards environmental concerns. 　　The success of Sydney’s bid laid to rest much of the opposition to the gamble. Nonetheless, most economists agree that it would be wise when considering future risks of this kind to bear well in mind the financial consequences of failure. 　　Answer the questions below. 　　Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. 　　Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet. 　　1. How many cities were competing in 1993 for the right to hold the 2000 Games? 　　2. What was the cost of the revised budget for the Sydney bid? 　　3. As a result of the Federal Government’s $5 million grant, who also contributed towards the bid? 　　4. What phrase of three words in the text describes the State of Victoria when Melbourne bid for the Games? 　　5. How many achievements does the Secretary of the NSW Labor Council mention in his industrial relations model?

问答题 Passage 1 The Nature of Disputes　　To resolve a dispute means to turn opposing positions into a single outcome. The two parties may choose to focus their attention on one or more of three basic factors. They may seek to reconcile their interests, determine who is right, and/or determine who is more powerful. 　　Section A 　　Interests are needs, desires, concerns, and fears-the things one cares about or wants. They provide the foundation for a person’s or an organization’s position in a dispute. In a dispute, not only do the interests of one party not coincide with those of the other party, but they are in conflict. For example, the director of sales for an electronics company gets into a dispute with the director of manufacturing over the number of TV models to produce. The director of sales wants to produce more models because her interest is in selling TV sets; more models mean more choice for consumers and hence increased sales. The director of manufacturing, however, wants to produce fewer models. His interest is in decreasing manufacturing costs and more models mean higher costs. 　　Section B 　　Reconciling such interests is not easy. It involves probing for deeply rooted concerns, devising creative solutions, and making tradeoffs and compromises where interests are opposed. The most common procedure for doing this is negotiation, the act of communication intended to reach agreement. Another interests-based procedure is mediation, in which a third party assists the disputants, the two sides in the dispute, in reaching agreement. 　　Section C 　　By no means do all negotiations (or mediations) focus on reconciling interests. Some negotiations focus on determining who is right, such as when two lawyers argue about whose case has the greater merit. Other negotiations focus on determining who is more powerful, such as when quarrelling neighbors or nations exchange threats and counter threats. Often negotiations involve a mix of all three—some attempts to satisfy interests, some discussion of rights, and some references to relative power. 　　Section D 　　It is often complicated to attempt to determine who is right in a dispute. Although it is usually straightforward where rights are formalized in law, other rights take the form of unwritten but socially accepted standards of behavior, such as reciprocity, precedent, equality, and seniority. 　　There are often different-and sometimes contradictory-standards that apply to rights. Reaching agreement on rights, where the outcome will determine who gets what, can often be so difficult that the parties frequently turn to a third party to determine who is right. The most typical rights procedure is adjudication, in which disputants present evidence and arguments to a neutral third party who has the power to make a decision that must be followed by both disputants. (In mediation, by contrast, the third party does not have the power to decide the dispute.) Public adjudication is provided by courts and administrative agencies. Private adjudication is provided by arbitrators. 　　Section E 　　A third way to resolve a dispute is on the basis of power. We define power, somewhat narrowly, as the ability to pressure someone to do something he would not otherwise do. Exercising power typically means imposing costs on the other side or threatening to do so. The exercise of power takes two common forms: acts of aggression, such as physical attack, and withholding the benefits that derive from a relationship, as when employees stop working in a strike. 　　Section F 　　In relationships of mutual dependence, such as between labor and management or within an organization or a family, the question of who is more powerful turns on who is less dependent on the other. If a company needs the employees’ work more than employees need the company’s pay, the company is more dependent and hence less powerful. How dependent one is rums on how satisfactory the alternatives are for satisfying one’s interests. The better the alternative, the less dependent one is. If it is easier for the company to replace striking employees than it is for striking employees to find new jobs, the company is less dependent and thereby more powerful. Determining who is the more powerful party without a decisive and potentially destructive power contest is difficult because power is ultimately a matter of perceptions. 　　Classify the following disputes as relating to 　　A. reconciliation of interests 　　B. determination of rights 　　C. determination of who is more powerful 　　Write the correct letter, A, B or C in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. 　　1. A mother disapproves of her son’s fiancee and threatens to disown her son if he marries her. The marriage goes ahead, but after some years the mother accepts it because she wants to reestablish a good relationship with her son. 　　2. A large company decides to buy a new computer system. The accounting department wants System X. The marketing department insists on System Y. A settlement is reached after a series of meetings between the disputants. 　　3. Island C is claimed by both Country A and Country B. The decision to determine whose land it is given to the United Nations, which concludes that Country A may have Island C because of stronger social and historical ties. 　　4. A married couple can afford only one car. The wife wants a simple, transportation vehicle. The husband wants a sports car to impress his friends. A mutual friend helps them reach the agreement. 　　5. A divorcing couple disagreeing about who will get custody of their children .go to a court of law. The court determines the mother should have custody. 　　6. An employer refuses to pay an employee because of poor job performance. The employee promises to improve his work.

问答题 Passage 1 Pupil Size and Communication　　It has already been well established that changes in pupil size are clearly associated with changes in attitude. In a typical example, when viewing photographs of food, hungry subjects experience a much greater increase in pupil diameter than do sated subjects (see figure 1). However it now appears that enlarged or constricted pupils can also affect the response of the person who observed them. 　　FIGURE 1 　　DIFFERENCES IN PUPIL RESPONSE of hungry subjects and of sated subjects to color slides of various foods is shown. The subjects first viewed a control slide, then a slide of a food and the change in pupil size was measured. 　　Studies of the pupil as an indicator of attitude point to the possibility that one person uses another person’s pupil size as a source of information about that person’s feelings or attitudes. In one experiment two photographs of an attractive young woman were shown to a group of men. The photographs were identical except that in one the woman’s pupils had been retouched to make them larger and in the other they had been retouched to make them smaller. None of the men reported noticing the difference in pupil size, but when they were asked to describe the woman, they said that the women in the picture with the large pupils was “soft”, “more feminine” or “pretty”. The same woman in the picture with the small pupils was described as being “hard”, “selfish” or “cold”. There could be little doubt that the large pupils made the woman more attractive to the men. 　　It seems that what is appealing about large pupils in a woman is that they are an indicator of interest, which can be interpreted as sexual interest. However, when men view a picture of a woman with large pupils, their own pupils dilate. In other words, seeing large pupils gives rise to larger pupils. Interestingly, men and women showed almost no increase in pupil size when viewing photographs of members of the same sex with dilated pupils. 　　That the dilation response is in fact learned rather than innate is supported by experiments with children. In one experiment, subjects aged 6 to 22 were shown drawings of female faces that had different sized pupils, and asked to choose the one which was “happier”. 　　The results showed that, up to the age of 14, a person does not necessarily perceive larger pupils as being happier than smaller pupils (see figure 2). 　　FIGURE 2 　　Age differences in perceiving a face with large pupils as being happier than a face with small pupils 　　Of particular interest was another finding by McLean: blue-eyed subjects were more likely to judge large pupils as being happy and than brown-eyed subjects. This finding was confirmed when another group of subjects were asked to fill in the pupils on drawings of happy faces and angry ones: the blue-eyed subjects drew larger “happy” pupils and smaller “angry” pupils than the brown-eyed subjects (see figure 3). 　　FIGURE 3 　　BLUE-EYED SUBJECTS drew larger pupils on a sketch of a happy face and smaller pupils on a scowling face than brown-eyed subjects. In addition, when viewing a picture that normally causes dilation or constriction, blue-eyed people show a greater change in pupil size. 　　Blue-eyed people have also been found to have a stronger pupil response than brown-eyed people when they view a picture that causes pupil dilation or constriction. To be more precise, with respect to the total range of response from the smallest pupil size to the largest, the range is greater for blue-eyed people than it is for brown-eyed people. 　　Based on the information in Reading Passage 3, “Pupil Size and Communication”, indicate the relationship between each of the two measures listed below in terms of: 　　PC.　　　 if there is a positive correlation 　　L/N　　　 if there is little or no correlation 　　NI　　　　if there is no information 　　Write your answers (PC, L/N, NI) in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet. 　　MEASURE 1　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 MEASURE 2 　　1. Changes in pupil size　　　　　　　　　Changes in attitude 　　2. Images of food　　　　　　　　　　　 Pupil dilation in hungry subjects 　　3. Small pupil size in picture of woman　　　Negative response in male subject 　　4. Pupil dilation in picture of woman　　　　Pupil dilation in male subject 　　5. Pupil dilation in picture of woman　　　　Pupil dilation in female subject 　　6. Small pupil size in picture of woman　　　Negative response in female subject 　　7. Subjects under 14 years of age　　　　　 Positive response to large pupils 　　8. Darkness of eye color in photograph　　　Subject’s estimate of “happiness”

问答题 Passage 1 Finding the Lost Freedom　　A  The private car is assumed to have widened our horizons and increased our mobility. When we consider our children’s mobility, they can be driven to more places (and more distant places) than they could visit without access to a motor vehicle. However, allowing our cities to be dominated by cars has progressively eroded children’s independent mobility. Children have lost much of their freedom to explore their own neighborhood or city without adult supervision. In recent surveys, when parents in some cities were asked about their own childhood experiences, the majority remembered having more, or far more, opportunities for going out on their own, compared with their own children today. They had more freedom to explore their own environment. 　　B  Children’s, independent access to their local streets may be important for their own personal, mental and psychological development. Allowing them to get to know their own neighborhood and community gives them a “sense of place”. This depends on “active exploration”, which is not provided for when children are passengers in cars. (Such children may see more, but they learn less.) Not only is it important that children be able to get to local play areas by themselves, but walking and cycling journeys to school and to other destinations provide genuine play activities in themselves. 　　C  There are very significant time and money costs for parents associated with transporting their children to school, sport and to other locations. Research in the United Kingdom estimated that this cost, in 1990, was between 10 billion and 20 billion pounds. 　　D  The reduction in children’s freedom may also contribute to a weakening of the sense of local community. As fewer children and adults use the streets as pedestrians, these streets become less sociable places. There is less opportunity for children and adults to have the spontaneous exchanges that help to engender a feeling of community. This in itself may exacerbate fears associated with assault and molestation of children, because there are fewer adults available who know their neighbors’ children, and who can look out for their safety. 　　E  The extra traffic involved in transporting children results in increased traffic congestion, pollution and accident risk. As our roads become more dangerous, more parents drive their children to more places, thus contributing to increased levels of danger for the remaining pedestrians. Anyone who has experienced either the reduced volume of traffic in peak hour during school holidays, or the traffic jams near schools at the end of a school day, will not need convincing about these points. Thus, there are also important environmental implications of children’s loss of freedom. 　　F  As individuals, parents strive to provide the best upbringing they can for their children. However, in doing so, (e.g. by driving their children to sport, school or recreation) parents may be contributing to a more dangerous environment for children generally. The idea that “streets are for cars and back yards and playgrounds are for children” is a strongly held belief, and parents have little choice as individuals but to keep their children off the streets if they want to protect their safety. 　　G  In many parts of Dutch cities, and some traffic calmed precincts in Germany, residential streets are now places where cars must give way to pedestrians. In these areas, residents are accepting the view that the function of streets is not solely to provide mobility for cars. Streets may also be for social interaction, walking, cycling and playing. One of the most important aspects of these European cities, in terms of giving cities back to children, has been a range of “traffic calming” initiatives, aiming at reducing the volume speed of traffic. These initiatives have had complex interactive effects, leading to a sense that children have been able to “recapture” their local neighborhood, and more importantly, that they have been able to do this in safety. Recent research has demonstrated that children in many German cities have significantly higher levels to freedom to travel to places in their own neighborhood or city than children in other cities in the world. 　　H  Modifying cities in order to enhance children’s freedom will not only benefit children. Such cities will become more environmentally sustainable, as well as more sociable and more livable for all city residents. Perhaps it will be our concern for our children’s welfare that convinces us that we need to challenge the dominance of the car in our cities. 　　Complete each sentence with the correct ending i-x below. 　　Write the correct number i-x in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. 　　1. By driving their children to school, parents help create ______ 　　2. Children should play ______ 　　3. In some German towns, pedestrians have preference right of walking ______ 　　4. Streets should also be used for ______ 　　5. Reducing the amount of traffic and the speed is ______ 　　6. All people who live in the city will benefit if cities are ______

问答题 Passage 2 New-age Transport　　Computerized design, advanced materials and new technologies are being used to produce machines of a type never seen before. 　　It looks as if it came straight from the set of Star Wars. It has four-wheel drive and rises above rocky surfaces. It lowers and raises its nose when going up and down hills. And when it comes to a river, it turns amphibious: two hydrojets power it along by blasting water under its body. There is room for two passengers and a driver, who sit inside a glass bubble operating electronic, aircraft-type controls. A vehicle so daring on land and water needs windscreen wipers-but it doesn’t have any. Water molecules are disintegrated on the screen’s surface by ultrasonic sensors. 　　This unusual vehicle is the Racoon. It is an invention not of Hollywood but of Renault, a rather conservative French state-owned carmaker, better known for its family hatchbacks. Renault built the Racoon to explore new freedoms for designers and engineers created by advances in materials and manufacturing processes. Renault is thinking about startlingly different cars; other producers have radical new ideas for trains, boats and aeroplanes. 　　The first of the new freedoms is in design. Powerful computer-aided design (CAD) systems can replace with a click of a computer mouse hours of laborious work done on thousands of drawing boards. So new products, no matter how complicated, can be developed much faster. For the first time, Boeing will not have to build a giant replica of its new airliner, the 777, to make sure all the bits fit together. Its CAD system will take care of that. 　　But Renault is taking CAD further. It claims the Racoon is the world’s first vehicle to be designed within the digitized world of virtual reality. Complex programmes were used to simulate the vehicle and the terrain that it was expected to cross. This allowed a team led by Patrick Le Quement, Renault’s industrial-design director, to “drive” it long before a prototype existed. 　　Renault is not alone in thinking that virtual reality will transform automotive design. In Detroit, Ford is also investigating its potential. Jack Telnac, the firm’s head of design, would like designers in different parts of the world to work more closely together, linked by computers. They would do more than style cars. Virtual reality will allow engineers to peer inside the working parts of a vehicle. Designers will watch bearings move, oil flow, gears mesh and hydraulics pump. As these techniques catch on, even stranger vehicles are likely to come along. 　　Transforming these creations from virtual reality to actual reality will also become easier, especially with advances in materials. Firms that once bashed everything out of steel now find that new alloys or composite materials (which can be made from mixtures of plastic, resin, ceramics and metals, reinforced with fibres such as glass or carbon) are changing the rules of manufacturing. At the same time, old materials keep getting better, as their producers try to secure their place in the factory of the future. This competition is increasing the pace of development of all materials. 　　One company in this field is Scaled Composites. It was started in 1982 by Burt Rutan, an aviator who has devised many unusual aircraft. His company develops and tests prototypes that have ranged from business aircraft to air racers. It has also worked on composite sails for the America’s Cup yacht race and on General Motors’ Ultralite, a 100-miles-per-gallon experimental family car built from carbon fibre. 　　Again, the Racoon reflects this race between the old and the new. It uses conventional steel and what Renault describes as a new “high-limit elastic steel” in its chassis. This steel is 30% lighter than the usual kind. The Racoon also has parts made from composites. Renault plans to replace the petrol engine with a small gas turbine, which could be made from heat-resisting ceramics, and use it to run a generator that would provide power for electric motors at each wheel. 　　With composites it is possible to build many different parts into a single component. Fiat, Italy’s biggest car maker, has worked out that it could reduce the number of components needed in one of its car bodies from 150 to 16 by using a composite shell rather than one made of steel. Aircraft and cars may increasingly be assembled as if they were plastic kits. 　　Advances in engine technology also make cars lighter. The Ultralite, which Scaled Composites helped to design for General Motors, uses a two-stroke engine in a “power pod” at the rear of the vehicle. The engine has been developed from an East German design and weighs 40% less than a conventional engine but produces as much power. It is expected to run cleanly enough to qualify as an ultra-low emissions vehicle under California’s tough new rules. 　　Look at the following design features and list of companies. 　　Match each design feature with the correct company, A-E. 　　Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. 　　NB You may use any letter more than once. 　　1. a power pod 　　2. electronic controls 　　3. a composite body 　　4. elastic steel 　　5. aircraft prototypes 　　6. ultrasonic sensors

问答题 Passage 1 The Research on Self-esteem　　A  Self-esteem is generally considered the evaluative component of the self-concept, a broader representation of the self that includes cognitive and behavioral aspects as well as evaluative or affective ones. While the construct is most often used to refer to a global sense of self-worth, narrower concepts such as self-confidence or body-esteem are used to imply a sense of self-esteem in more specific domains. It is also widely assumed that self-esteem functions as a trait, that is, it is stable across time within individuals. 　　B  Self-esteem is an extremely popular construct within psychology, and has been related to virtually every other psychological concept or domain, including personality (e.g., shyness), behavioral (e.g., task performance), cognitive (e.g., attributional bias), and clinical concepts (e.g., anxiety and depression). While some researchers have been particularly concerned with understanding the nuances of the self-esteem construct, others have focused on the adaptive and self-protective functions of self-esteem. Self-esteem has been related both to socioeconomic status and to various aspects of health and health-related behaviors, as has a related construct, self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, a term associated with the work of Bandera, refers to an individual’s sense of competence or ability in general or in particular domains. 　　C  Low self-esteem is the universal common denominator literally among all people suffering from addictions to any and all mind altering substances such as alcohol—not genes. In the book Alcoholism: A False Stigma: Low Self-Esteem the True Disease (1996), Candito reports, “Those who have identified themselves as ‘recovered alcoholics’ indicate that low self-esteem is the most significant problem in their lives. Low self-esteem is the true problem and the true disease. Alcohol is but a symptom of an alcoholic’s disease.” Studies have found that 18-year olds who used drugs frequently were using them as early as age seven, already more psychologically troubled than their peers. They were already anxious and unhappy, alienated from their family and peers, and overly impulsive. Low self-esteem, lack of conformity, poor academic achievement and poor parental-child relationships are also indicators of young children likely to end up using drugs. 　　D  Candito comes to the conclusion that low self-esteem is the underlying origin f all problematic behaviors, and the true disease that plagues the world, resulting in alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and all other obsessive behaviors including criminal behavior. This conclusion is also shared by Andrew Keegan (1987) who maintains that low self-esteem either causes or contributes to neurosis, anxiety, defensiveness, and ultimately alcohol and drug abuse. The reason why some become alcoholic while others do not is dependent upon their ability to contend with low self-esteem. 　　E  However, many of the positive outcomes attributed to high self-esteem are not substantiated by research, according to Brown psychologist Krueger. Krueger, associate professor of psychology and faculty member from three other universities, formed that conclusion after reviewing more than two decades of objective research studies on self-esteem at the invitation of the American Psychological Society. Their report appears in this month’s issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a supplement to Psychological Science. “Across most measures-school and job performance, violence and crime, and health-there were few consistent links between the level of self-esteem and the quality of outcomes,” said Krueger. High self-esteem does not prevent children from smoking, drinking, taking drugs or engaging in early sex, the task force reported. If anything, high self-esteem fosters experimentation, which may increase early sexual activity or drinking. The exception was a connection between high self-esteem and reduced chances of the eating disorder bulimia in females. In adults, according to the task force, occupational success may boost self-esteem rather than the reverse. And neither high nor low self-esteem is a direct cause of violence. 　　F  In fact, pleasant feelings and enhanced initiative were the two benefits of high self-esteem found by the task force. High self-esteem has a strong relationship to happiness and low self-esteem is more likely than high to lead to depression under some circumstances. Those with high self-esteem were also found to exhibit more persistence at tasks. Yet the task force also noted that there are basically two types of high self-esteem—that which is realistic, and that which is out of touch with reality. People who fall into the former category accept their good qualities. Those in the latter are characterised as narcissistic, defensive or conceited individuals. In some studies, narcissism led to some negative qualities such as increased aggression in retaliation for wounded pride. 　　G  The self-esteem movement began in California during the 1980s with the idea that many of society’s problems were related to low self-esteem. The California legislature financed a task force to increase self-esteem in an effort to reduce welfare dependency, unwanted pregnancy, school failure, crime, drug addiction and other problems, with the goal of saving taxpayer dollars, according to the task force. Since then, there has been a nationwide proliferation of techniques to raise self-esteem—particularly in schools—and a proliferation of books marketed to people helping themselves. Yet, “after a quarter of a century of research, the high hopes of the self-esteem movement have not been realized, and customers of the self-help industry should not look to heightened self-esteem as a panacea,” said Krueger. 　　Which paragraph contains the following information? 　　Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. 　　NB You may use any letter more than once. 　　1. Researchers focused their studies on varied aspects of self-esteem. 　　2. Some researchers related problematic drink behaviors to self-esteem. 　　3. The reason of violence seems not related to the quality of self-esteem. 　　4. Andrew Keegan agreed that low self-esteem is the underlying origin of all problematic behaviors. 　　5. Many inventions of methods are stimulated to increase the self-esteem.