Reading 1: James Hargreaves and Spinning Jenny
关于spinning Jenny纺纱机的发明及影响
P1 简单题 short-answer questions
P2 T/F/NG
P3 图表填空 diagram filling (关于纺纱机的设计和运作机制)
内容：
关于Spinning Jenny纺纱机发明之前的纺纱业状况，以及发明的灵感来源，设计及运作机制流程，以及带来的当地经济，生产模式，当地居民生活状态的改善及影响
James Hargreaves was a weaver living in the village of Stanhill in Lancashire. It is claimed that one day his daughter Jenny, accidentally knocked over over the family spinning wheel. The spindle continued to revolve and it gave Hargreaves the idea that a whole line of spindles could be worked off one wheel.
In 1764 Hargreaves built what became known as the Spinning-Jenny. The machine used eight spindles onto which the thread was spun from a corresponding set of rovings. By turning a single wheel, the operator could now spin eight threads at once. Later, improvements were made that enabled the number to be increased to eighty. The thread that the machine produced was coarse and lacked strength, making it suitable only for the filling of weft, the threads woven across the warp.
Hargreaves did not apply for a patent for his Spinning Jenny until 1770 and therefore others copied his ideas without paying him any money. It is estimated that by the time James Hargreaves died in 1778, over 20,000 Spinning-Jenny machines were being used in Britain.
James Hargreaves was born near Blackburn in about 1720. Hargreaves received no formal education and was unable to read or write. He worked as a carpenter and weaver but had a strong interest in engineering.
By the 1760s Hargreaves was living in the village of Stanhill and was one of the many weavers who owned his own spinning wheel and loom. It is claimed that one day his daughter Jenny accidentally knocked over over the family spinning wheel. The spindle continued to revolve and it gave Hargreaves the idea that a whole line of spindles could be worked off one wheel.
In 1764 Hargreaves built what became known as the Spinning-Jenny. The machine used eight spindles onto which the thread was spun from a corresponding set of rovings. By turning a single wheel, the operator could now spin eight threads at once. The thread that the machine produced was coarse and lacked strength, making it suitable only for the filling of weft, the threads woven across the warp.
Originally Hargreaves produced the machine for family use but when he began to sell the machines, spinners from Lancashire, fearing the possibility of cheaper competition, marched on his house and destroyed his equipment. Hargreaves did not apply for a patent for his Spinning Jenny until 1770 and therefore others copied his ideas without paying him any money.
Hargreaves moved to Nottingham where he erected a small spinning-mill. Others began to make improvements to the Spinning-Jenny and the number of threads was increased from eight to eighty. By the time James Hargreaves died in 1778, over 20,000 Spinning-Jenny machines were being used in Britain.
Reading 2: Perservance to success
关于毅力perservance 对于成功的意义
内容：
关于毅力perservance 对于成功的作用，是否是成功的必要条件，所引发的众多学家的众说纷纭
P1. Multiple choices
P2 Matching 人名和观点配对
P3 Y/N/NG
Reading 3: What’s art? Criteria (老题2012.12)
P1. 单选
P2 Y/N/NG
P3 多选
内容：
关于托尔斯泰的艺术观，即关于艺术的本质问题。讲他对艺术是什么观点。他最大的贡献不在于给出了艺术的定义，而是在于提出了一系列问题如何去判断一个作品是否属于art。他认为艺术家应该是业余的，不应该是职业化的，还批判了传统的主流观点关于构成艺术作品的要素，例如beauty, entertainment什么的;然后继续批判很多传统的艺术品都是counterfeit的，这些作品都有“imitation", "striking"等特点。
According to Tolstoy, art must create a specific emotional link between artist and audience, one that "affects" the viewer. Thus, real art requires the capacity to unite people via communication (clearness and genuineness are therefore crucial values). This aesthetic conception led Tolstoy to widen the criteria of what exactly a work of art is. He believed that the concept of art embraces any human activity in which one emitter, by means of external signs, transmits previously experienced feelings. Tolstoy offers an example of this: a boy that has experienced fear after an encounter with a wolf later relates that experience, infecting the hearers and compelling them to feel the same fear that he had experienced—that is a perfect example of a work of art. As communication, this is good art, because it is clear, it is sincere, and it is singular (focused on one emotion).
However, genuine "infection" is not the only criterion for good art. The good art vs. bad art issue unfolds into two directions. One is the conception that the stronger the infection, the better is the art. The other concerns the subject matter that accompanies this infection, which leads Tolstoy to examine whether the emotional link is a feeling that is worth creating. Good art, he claims, fosters feelings of universal brotherhood. Bad art inhibits such feelings. All good art has a Christian message, because only Christianity teaches an absolute brotherhood of all men. However, this is "Christian" only in a limited meaning of the word. Art produced by artistic elites is almost never good, because the upper class has entirely lost the true core of Christianity.
Furthermore, Tolstoy also believed that art that appeals to the upper class will feature emotions that are peculiar to the concerns of that class. Another problem with a great deal of art is that it reproduces past models, and so it is not properly rooted in a contemporary and sincere expression of the most enlightened cultural ideals of the artist's time and place. To cite one example, ancient Greek art extolled virtues of strength, masculinity, and heroism according to the values derived from its mythology. However, since Christianity does not embrace these values (and in some sense values the opposite, the meek and humble), Tolstoy believes that it is unfitting for people in his society to continue to embrace the Greek tradition of art.
Among other artists, he specifically condemns Wagner and Beethoven as examples of overly cerebral artists, who lack real emotion. Furthermore, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 cannot claim to be able to "infect" its audience, as it pretends at the feeling of unity and therefore cannot be considered good art.