&8226;You are unable to attend an important meeting in your department as you will be visiting an International Trade Fair.

&8226;Write a memo to the manager who has organized the meeting;

&8226;Apologizing for not being able to attend the meeting;

&8226;Explaining why you will be absent;

&8226;Saying when you will return to the department.

&8226;Write 40-50 words.

下面你将听到外国媒体有关中国能源形势的一段讲话。

Tight electricity supply is constraining China's economic growth—a situation likely to persist for three to four years until new capacity comes online. The energy shortfall has not yet severely hampered U.S. business operations in China, but this remains a distinct possibility. Shortages have now spread to two-thirds of China's provinces, affecting Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other first-tier cities. Plants in China's manufacturing heartland, the Pearl River Basin and East China now experience frequent mandatory shutdowns.

Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces have imposed electricity rationing. Many plants have installed costly back-up diesel generators. Shanghai's demand for electricity outstrips supply by two to four million kilowatts. The tight supply is causing price increases at the front end of the manufacturing supply chain. High energy costs are a competitive disadvantage for China in the world marketplace. Quality, quantity, and security of supply also are essential for China's continued economic growth. Present restrictions on the direct sale of electricity, oil, and gas to industrial users promote inefficiency and non-competitiveness. Much of the current concern with the "overheating" of China's economy has been driven by the fear that the energy supply is not keeping up with the development of major energy-consuming industries.

China's rapid economic growth, especially in the construction and manufacturing sectors, is behind the electricity shortage. China's energy industry has doubled in absolute terms during the last ten years, but such growth has been insufficient to meet demand. It takes five to seven years to design, construct, and commission a major thermal power plant, seven to ten years to explore and develop an oilfield, and five years to develop a coalmine. All require extremely large capital investment.

Despite the fact that China has the world's second largest coal reserves and worldwide coal and coke prices are at eight-year highs, supply has not been able to keep up with demand. Efforts to raise electricity production in the near term have been hampered by deficient railroad capacity, which has prevented coal from reaching power stations. While coal price cycles usually do not coincide with oil prices, current high prices in both commodities have supply straining to meet demand. While China only imported 0.6 percent of world oil supplies in 1995, it now imports 3 percent of the world's oil. China, like the United States, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to disruptions in the world's supply of oil.

Suppose your friend, a college graduate who signed an agreement with a university months ago, tells you that he has changed his mind and signed a new agreement with a better university. How will you react to this？ Will you support him in doing so or would rather have acted otherwise？

Write an essay of about 400 words clarifying your attitude.

In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement, and in the second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion with a summary.

Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriacy. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.

Write your composition on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.

中国海洋事业的发展

海洋覆盖了地球表面的71%，是全球生命支持系统的一个基本组成部分，也是资源的宝库，环境的重要调节器。人类社会的发展必然会越来越多地依赖海洋。

二十一世纪是人类开发利用海洋的新世纪。维护《联合国海洋法公约》确定的国际海洋法律原则，维护海洋健康，保护海洋环境，确保海洋资源的叮持续利用和海上安全，已成为人类共同遵守的准则和共同担负的使命。

中国是一个发展中的沿海大国。中国高度重视海洋的开发和保护，把发展海洋事业作为国家发展战略，加强海洋综合管理，不断完善海洋法律制度，积极发展海洋科学技术和教育。中国积极参与联合国系统的海洋事务，推进国家间和地区性海洋领域的合作，并认真履行自己承担的义务，为全球海洋开发和保护事业作出了积极贡献。

My friend said to me, "Are you free？" My friend asked me if __

She thinks it a pleasured go shopping with a friend.She thinks that __ a pleasure to go shopping with a friend.