1 There's a dimmer switch inside the sun that causes its brightness to rise and fall on timescales of around 100,000 years - exactly the same period as between ice ages on Earth. So says a physicist who has created a computer model of our star's core.

2 Robert Ehrlich of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, modelled the effect of temperature fluctuations in the sun's interior. According to the standard view, the temperature of the sun's core is held constant by the opposing pressures of gravity and nuclear fusion. However, Ehrlich believed that slight variations should be possible.

3 He took as his starting point the work of Attila Grandpierre of the Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 2005, Grandpierre and a collaborator, Gábor ágoston, calculated that magnetic fields in the sun's core could produce small instabilities in the solar plasma. These instabilities would induce localised oscillations in temperature.

4 Ehrlich's model shows that whilst most of these oscillations cancel each other out, some reinforce one another and become long-lived temperature variations. The favoured frequencies allow the sun's core temperature to oscillate around its average temperature of 13.6 million kelvin in cycles lasting either 100,000 or 41,000 years. Ehrlich says that random interactions within the sun's magnetic field could flip the fluctuations from one cycle length to the other.

5 These two timescales are instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with Earth's ice ages: for the past million years, ice ages have occurred roughly every 100,000 years. Before that, they occurred roughly every 41,000 years.

6 Most scientists believe that the ice ages are the result of subtle changes in Earth's orbit, known as the Milankovitch cycles. One such cycle describes the way Earth's orbit gradually changes shape from a circle to a slight ellipse and back again roughly every 100,000 years. The theory says this alters the amount of solar radiation that Earth receives, triggering the ice ages. However, a persistent problem with this theory has been its inability to explain why the ice ages changed frequency a million years ago.

7 "In Milankovitch, there is certainly no good idea why the frequency should change from one to another," says Neil Edwards, a climatologist at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. Nor is the transition problem the only one the Milankovitch theory faces. Ehrlich and other critics claim that the temperature variations caused by Milankovitch cycles are simply not big enough to drive ice ages.

8 However, Edwards believes the small changes in solar heating produced by Milankovitch cycles are then amplified by feedback mechanisms on Earth. For example, if sea ice begins to form because of a slight cooling, carbon dioxide that would otherwise have found its way into the atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle is locked into the ice. That weakens the greenhouse effect and Earth grows even colder.

9 According to Edwards, there is no lack of such mechanisms. "If you add their effects together, there is more than enough feedback to make Milankovitch work," he says. "The problem now is identifying which mechanisms are at work." This is why scientists like Edwards are not yet ready to give up on the current theory. "Milankovitch cycles give us ice ages roughly when we observe them to happen. We can calculate where we are in the cycle and compare it with observation," he says. "I can't see any way of testing [Ehrlich's] idea to see where we are in the temperature oscillation."

10 Ehrlich concedes this. "If there is a way to test this theory on the sun, I can't think of one that is practical," he says. That's because variation over 41,000 to 100,000 years is too gradual to be observed. However, there may be a way to test it in other stars: red dwarfs. Their cores are much smaller than that of the sun, and so Ehrlich believes that the oscillation periods could be short enough to be observed. He has yet to calculate the precise period or the extent of variation in brightness to be expected.

11 Nigel Weiss, a solar physicist at the University of Cambridge, is far from convinced. He describes Ehrlich's claims as "utterly implausible". Ehrlich counters that Weiss's opinion is based on the standard solar model, which fails to take into account the magnetic instabilities that cause the temperature fluctuations.

Questions 1-4

Complete each of the following statements with One or Two names of the scientists from the box below.

Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

A. Attila Grandpierre

B. Gábor ágoston

C. Neil Edwards

D. Nigel Weiss

E. Robert Ehrlich

1. ...claims there a dimmer switch inside the sun that causes its brightness to rise and fall in periods as long as those between ice ages on Earth.

2. ...calculated that the internal solar magnetic fields could produce instabilities in the solar plasma.

3. ...holds that Milankovitch cycles can induce changes in solar heating on Earth and the changes are amplified on Earth.

4. ...doesn't believe in Ehrlich's viewpoints at all.

Questions 5-9

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?

In boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement is true according to the passage

FALSE if the statement is false according to the passage

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

5. The ice ages changed frequency from 100,000 to 41,000 years a million years ago.

6. The sole problem that the Milankovitch theory can not solve is to explain why the ice age frequency should shift from one to another.

7. Carbon dioxide can be locked artificially into sea ice to eliminate the greenhouse effect.

8. Some scientists are not ready to give up the Milankovitch theory though they haven't figured out which mechanisms amplify the changes in solar heating.

9. Both Edwards and Ehrlich believe that there is no practical way to test when the solar temperature oscillation begins and when ends.

Questions 10-14

Complete the notes below.

Choose one suitable word from the Reading Passage above for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.

The standard view assumes that the opposing pressures of gravity and nuclear fusions hold the temperature ...10...in the sun's interior, but the slight changes in the earth's ...11... alter the temperature on the earth and cause ice ages every 100,000 years. A British scientist, however, challenges this view by claiming that the internal solar magnetic ...12... can induce the temperature oscillations in the sun's interior. The sun's core temperature oscillates around its average temperature in ...13... lasting either 100,000 or 41,000 years. And the ...14... interactions within the sun's magnetic field could flip the fluctuations from one cycle length to the other, which explains why the ice ages changed frequency a million years ago.

How a Frenchman is reviving McDonald’s in Europe

A. When Denis Hennequin took over as the European boss of McDonald’s in January 2004, the world’s biggest restaurant chain was showing signs of recovery in America and Australia, but sales in Europe were sluggish or declining. One exception was France, where Mr Hennequin had done a sterling job as head of the group’s French subsidiary to sell more Big Macs to his compatriots. His task was to replicate this success in all 41 of the European countries where anti-globalisers’ favourite enemy operates.

B. So far Mr Hennequin is doing well. Last year European sales increased by 5.8% and the number of customers by 3.4%, the best annual results in nearly 15 years. Europe accounted for 36% of the group’s profits and for 28% of its sales. December was an especially good month as customers took to seasonal menu offerings in France and Britain, and to a promotion in Germany based on the game of Monopoly.

C. Mr Hennequin’s recipe for revival is to be more open about his company’s operations, to be “locally relevant”, and to improve the experience of visiting his 6,400 restaurants. McDonald’s is blamed for making people fat, exploiting workers, treating animals cruelly, polluting the environment and simply for being American. Mr Hennequin says he wants to engage in a dialogue with the public to address these concerns.

D. He introduced “open door” visitor days in each country which became hugely popular. In Poland alone some 50,000 visitors came to McDonald’s through the visitors’ programme last year. The Nutrition Information Initiative, launched last year, put detailed labels on McDonald’s packaging with data on calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and salt content. The details are also printed on tray-liners.

E. Mr Hennequin also wants people to know that “McJobs”, the low-paid menial jobs at McDonald’s restaurants, are much better than people think. But some of his efforts have backfired: last year he sparked a controversy with the introduction of a “McPassport” that allows McDonald’s employees to work anywhere in the European Union. Politicians accused the firm of a ploy to make cheap labour from eastern Europe more easily available to McDonald’s managers across the continent.

F. To stay in touch with local needs and preferences, McDonald’s employs local bosses as much as possible. A Russian is running McDonald’s in Russia, though a Serb is in charge of Germany. The group buys mainly from local suppliers. Four-fifths of its supplies in France come from local farmers, for example. (Some of the French farmers who campaigned against the company in the late 1990s subsequently discovered that it was, in fact, buying their produce.) And it hires celebrities such as Heidi Klum, a German model, as local brand ambassadors.

G. In his previous job Mr Hennequin established a “design studio” in France to spruce up his company’s drab restaurants and adapt the interior to local tastes. The studio is now masterminding improvements everywhere in Europe. He also set up a “food studio”, where cooks devise new recipes in response to local trends.

H. Given France’s reputation as the most anti-American country in Europe, it seems odd that McDonald’s revival in Europe is being led by a Frenchman, using ideas cooked up in the French market. But France is in fact the company’s most profitable market after America. The market where McDonald’s is weakest in Europe is not France, but Britain.

I. “Fixing Britain should be his priority,” says David Palmer, a restaurant analyst at UBS. Almost two-thirds of the 1,214 McDonald’s restaurants in Britain are company-owned, compared with 40% in Europe and 15% in America. The company suffers from the volatility of sales at its own restaurants, but can rely on steady income from franchisees. So it should sell as many underperforming outlets as possible, says Mr Palmer.

J. M.Mark Wiltamuth, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates that European company-owned restaurants’ margins will increase slightly to 16.4% in 2007. This is still less than in the late 1990s and below America’s 18-19% today. But it is much better than before Mr Hennequin’s reign. He is already being tipped as the first European candidate for the group’s top job in Illinois. Nobody would call that a McJob.

Notes to Reading Passage 1

1.sterling高质量的

e.g. He has many sterling qualities. 他身上有许多优秀的品质。

2. menial 不体面的, 乏味的(工作、职业)

3. spruce up打扮整齐、漂亮、装饰

4. mastermind指挥、谋划(一个计划或活动)

e.g. The police know who masterminded the robbery.警察知道是谁策划了那次抢劫。

5. underperform表现不佳表现出低于标准的工作水平、企业出现亏本

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?

Write your answer in Boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

TRUE if the statement reflects the claims of the writer

FALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1. McDonald was showing the sign of recovery in all European countries except France after Denis Hennequin took office as the boss of Euro-markets.

2. Starting from last year, detailed labels are put on McDonald’s packaging and detailed information is also printed on tray-liners.

3. France is said to be the most anti-American country in Europe, but the ideas of the “open door” visiting days and “McPassport” are invented in the French market.

4. Britain possesses the weakest McDonald market among European countries and approximately 1214 McDonald’s restaurants are company-owned.

5. According to David Palmer, a restaurant analyst at UBS, David Hennequin should treat the problem about McDonald in Britain as the most important thing.

6. David Palmer suggested that the management of McDonalod in Italy should sell as many its outlets which lose money in business as possible for revival.

Questions 7-10

Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 7-10 on your answe sheet.

7. The word “sterling” in line 3 of Paragraph A means__________.

A. difficult

B. menial

C. terrible

D. excellent

8. Which of the following statements on the accusation of MacDonald is NOT TRUE?

A. It tends to make people fat.

B. Its operations are very vague.

C. It tends to exploit workers.

D. It tends to treat animals cruelly.

9. Which of the following measures taken by Denis Hennequin produced undesired result?

A. “Food Studio” scheme.

B. “Open Door” visitor days.

C. The “McPassport” scheme.

D. The Nutrition Information Initiative.

10. What did Denis Hennequin do so as to respond to local trends?

A. set up a “Food Studio” .

B. established a “Design Studio”.

C. hired celebrities as local brand ambassadors.

D. employed local bosses as much as possible.

Questions 11-14

Complete each of the following statements (Questions 11-14) with words or number taken from Reading Passage 1.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.

11. After January 2004, McDonald was making improvement following a period of slump in America and Australia, but sales in Europe were ………………………….

12. Business of McDonald in France and Britain was particularly good in December since customers took to ……………………………..

13. Compared with other countries, France is McDonald’s ………………………. next to America.

14. ……………………. of McDonald’s restaurants in America are companied–owned and the figure is much lower than that in Britain.

How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales

1.A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is.Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended.Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” (that is，how ants，bees or any social animal，including humans，behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy.

2.At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome，Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani，a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology，described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance，by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store，forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes，also of the Florida Institute of Technology，set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct.The idea is that，if a certain product is seen to be popular，shoppers are likely to choose it too.The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying.

3.Enter smart-cart technology.In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag，a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information，and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer.As a customer walks past a shelf of goods，a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product.If the number is high，he is more likely to select it too.

4.Mr Usmani's “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the “right” product—that is，the one everyone else bought.The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world，mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets.But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work，and testing will get under way in the spring.

5.Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could，indeed，be boosted in this way.Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs.The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded，they followed the crowd.When the songs were not ordered by rank，but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed，the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced.People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.

6.In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies.The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category，and the rankings are updated weekly.Icosystem，a company in Cambridge，Massachusetts，also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales.

7.And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet.Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers.Even in the privacy of your home，you can still be part of the swarm.

Questions 1-6

Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage.Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

1.Shopowners realize that the smell of _______________ can increase sales of food products.

2.In shops，products shelved at a more visible level sell better even if they are more _______________.

3.According to Mr.Usmani，with the use of “swarm intelligence” phenomenon，a new method can be applied to encourage _______________.

4.On the way to everyday items at the back of the store，shoppers might be tempted to buy _______________.

5.If the number of buyers shown on the _______________ is high，other customers tend to follow them.

6.Using the “swarm-moves” model，shopowners do not have to give customers _______________ to increase sales.

Howshopscanexploitpeople'sherdmentalitytoincreasesales

1.ATRIPtothesupermarketmaynotseemlikeanexerciseinpsychologicalwarfare—butitis.Shopkeepersknowthatfillingastorewiththearomaoffreshlybakedbreadmakespeoplefeelhungryandpersuadesthemtobuymorefoodthantheyhadintended.Stockingthemostexpensiveproductsateyelevelmakesthemsellfasterthancheaperbutlessvisiblecompetitors.Nowresearchersareinvestigatinghow“swarmintelligence”(thatis，howants，beesoranysocialanimal，includinghumans，behaveinacrowd)canbeusedtoinfluencewhatpeoplebuy.

2.AtarecentconferenceonthesimulationofadaptivebehaviourinRome，Zeeshan-ul-hassanUsmani，acomputerscientistfromtheFloridaInstituteofTechnology，describedanewwaytoincreaseimpulsebuyingusingthisphenomenon.Supermarketsalreadyencourageshopperstobuythingstheydidnotrealisetheywanted:forinstance，byplacingeverydayitemssuchasmilkandeggsatthebackofthestore，forcingshopperstowalkpastothertemptinggoodstoreachthem.MrUsmaniandRonaldoMenezes，alsooftheFloridaInstituteofTechnology，setouttoenhancethistendencytobuymorebyplayingontheherdinstinct.Theideaisthat，ifacertainproductisseentobepopular，shoppersarelikelytochooseittoo.Thechallengeistokeepcustomersinformedaboutwhatothersarebuying.

3.Entersmart-carttechnology.InMrUsmani'ssupermarketeveryproducthasaradiofrequencyidentificationtag，asortofbarcodethatusesradiowavestotransmitinformation，andeverytrolleyhasascannerthatreadsthisinformationandrelaysittoacentralcomputer.Asacustomerwalkspastashelfofgoods，ascreenontheshelftellshimhowmanypeoplecurrentlyintheshophavechosenthatparticularproduct.Ifthenumberishigh，heismorelikelytoselectittoo.

4.MrUsmani's“swarm-moves”modelappealstosupermarketsbecauseitincreasessaleswithouttheneedtogivepeoplediscounts.Anditgivesshoppersthesatisfactionofknowingthattheyboughtthe“right”product—thatis，theoneeveryoneelsebought.Themodelhasnotyetbeentestedwidelyintherealworld，mainlybecauseradiofrequencyidentificationtechnologyisnewandhasonlybeeninstalledexperimentallyinsomesupermarkets.ButMrUsmanisaysthatbothWal-MartinAmericaandTescoinBritainareinterestedinhiswork，andtestingwillgetunderwayinthespring.

5.Anotherrecentstudyonthepowerofsocialinfluenceindicatesthatsalescould，indeed，beboostedinthisway.MatthewSalganikofColumbiaUniversityinNewYorkandhiscolleagueshavedescribedcreatinganartificialmusicmarketinwhichsome14,000peopledownloadedpreviouslyunknownsongs.Theresearchersfoundthatwhenpeoplecouldseethesongsrankedbyhowmanytimestheyhadbeendownloaded，theyfollowedthecrowd.Whenthesongswerenotorderedbyrank，butthenumberoftimestheyhadbeendownloadedwasdisplayed，theeffectofsocialinfluencewasstilltherebutwaslesspronounced.Peoplethusfollowtheherdwhenitiseasyforthemtodoso.

6.InJapanachainofconvenienceshopscalledRanKingRanQueenhasbeenorderingitsproductsaccordingtosalesdatafromdepartmentstoresandresearchcompanies.Theshopssellonlythemostpopularitemsineachproductcategory，andtherankingsareupdatedweekly.Icosystem，acompanyinCambridge，Massachusetts，alsoaimstoexploitknowledgeofsocialnetworkingtoimprovesales.

7.Andthepsychologythatworksinphysicalstoresisjustaspotentontheinternet.OnlineretailerssuchasAmazonareadeptattellingshopperswhichproductsarepopularwithlike-mindedconsumers.Evenintheprivacyofyourhome，youcanstillbepartoftheswarm.

Questions1-6

Completethesentencesbelowwithwordstakenfromthereadingpassage.UseNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.

1.Shopownersrealizethatthesmellof_______________canincreasesalesoffoodproducts.

2.Inshops，productsshelvedatamorevisiblelevelsellbettereveniftheyaremore_______________.

3.AccordingtoMr.Usmani，withtheuseof“swarmintelligence”phenomenon，anewmethodcanbeappliedtoencourage_______________.

4.Onthewaytoeverydayitemsatthebackofthestore，shoppersmightbetemptedtobuy_______________.

5.Ifthenumberofbuyersshownonthe_______________ishigh，othercustomerstendtofollowthem.

6.Usingthe“swarm-moves”model，shopownersdonothavetogivecustomers_______________toincreasesales.

Dadwenttobuysome__________as__________formycousin.