独立写作

　　1. A leader should have strong opinions and not change his or her mind about those opinions.

　　Score 5：

　　Some people believe that a leader should hold strong opinions and should not change them even when others disagree with them because this is an important way to show a strong leadership. However, I believe that in today’s workplace, the democratic style does have its place in business. Therefore, sometimes a leader should provide his or her team members with opportunities to express their opinions. If necessary, a leader should change his or her opinions as well.

　　To start with, a leader’s primary task is to stimulate and motivate their colleagues to come up with creative ideas, which benefit teamwork to a large extent. In workplace, most tasks require teamwork where everyone in the team needs to contribute. The role of a leader is to stimulate all his or her team members to express their opinions rather than to become a dictator who make every decision on his or her own. It is not exaggerated to say that sometimes team members are always the source of innovative ideas and plans, which could definitely benefit the company. In order to motivate the team members, a leader should not only create an atmosphere that everyone could feel free to speak up but also respect the thoughts of his or her colleagues.

　　Moreover, it happens that sometimes a leader’s decision could be wrong and will exert negative influence on the team’s work. As everyone knows, no one is perfect and people do make mistakes. If a leader hold strong opinions that might result in setbacks, and he or she refuses to change, the whole team’s project will be affected by his or her dictation. As a result, the team members will become reluctant to contribute to the team and might even quit the current job for a better one. On the contrary, if the leader is humble enough to change their opinions and listen to others’ suggestions, the team could avoid future loss. More importantly, the team members will look up to the leader because he or she has an open mind and is willing to accept others’ opinions.

　　As I have read from an article published online, “decision making is when the leader gives up ownership and control of a decision and allows the group to vote”. Nowadays, a leader should encourage his or her colleagues to actively participate in the decision-making process, and should change their opinions when it is necessary.

　　Score 4：

　　Some people believe that a leader should hold strong opinions and should not change them even when others disagree with them. However, I believe that in today’s workplace, the democratic style does have its place in business. Therefore, sometimes a leader should provide his or her team members with opportunities to express their opinions. If necessary, a leader should change his or her opinions as well.

　　In workplace, most tasks require teamwork where everyone in the team needs to contribute. The role of a leader is to stimulate all his or her team members to express their opinions and motivate them to work on their assignments rather than to become a dictator who make every decision on his or her own. It is not exaggerated to say that sometimes team members are always the source of creative ideas and plans, which could definitely benefit the company. In order to motivate the team members, a leader should not only create an atmosphere that everyone could feel free to speak up but also respect the thoughts of his or her colleagues.

　　Moreover, it happens that sometimes a leader’s decision could be wrong and will exert negative influence on the team’s work. As everyone knows, no one is perfect and people do make mistakes. If a leader hold strong opinions that might result in setbacks, and he or she refuse to change, the whole team’s project will be affected by his or her dictation. As a result, the team members will become less motivated in their work and might even leave the company for another to find a better job. On the contrary, if the leader is humble enough to change their opinions and listen to others’ suggestions, the team could avoid future loss. More importantly, the team members will look up to the leader because he or she has an open mind and is willing to accept others’ opinions.

　　Based on the above discussion, a leader should not hold strong opinions and should change their opinions when it is necessary. Nowadays, a leader should encourage his or her colleagues to actively participate in the decision-making process, and should change their opinions when it is necessary.

综合写作

　　1 关于政府the government 是否应该own Amtrak(Amtrak是美国的铁路公司，为政府所有)。Reading认为公交系统应该取消或由私人公司承包。

　　阅读：

　　1. 赚不到钱(不能make profit),反而赔钱lose money。有些路线很偏僻，去remote area,很少有人坐。

　　2. 对私有的transportation company (比如airlines)很不公平。因为政府只给火车funding，并没有support those companies等，以至于他们没法降价，难以和或者争顾客。

　　3. 在美国火车不是那么popular。大部分人选择使用汽车而不是火车，因此政府不应该再funding，而是直接投资告诉的建设，培训工作人员，播报天气预报。

　　听力：

　　1. government funding 火车不是为了赚钱，而是为了给偏僻地区的人提供方便。住在remote area的人需要用火车，他们跟住在城市的人一样有权利享受公共交通。

　　2. 政府对航空公司airlines 有很多各种各样的支持funding了，例如paying bills from the air traffic control towers, training aviators and weather forecasting organizations.

　　3. 大家不坐火车不是因为火车过时了，而是速度慢效率低，导致人们使用自己的私人汽车。要是政府在train system 上多投资来improve the service,像Japan and Europe 那样，既方便又便宜more affordable and faster,人们都会愿意坐火车。结论说政府应该多投入在Amtrak上。

　　2 有一个湖，三个理论解释颜色：

　　阅读：

　　1. 土是枣红色

　　2. 溶解了化学物质，存在这种颜色

　　3. 水藻

　　听力：

　　1. 有些人把湖水取出来后，还是枣红色

　　2. 化学物质是白色，跟其他物质混合后，才是粉色的

　　3. 因为海藻变化数量，现实是湖水不变化。

　　3 Beetles damage ash trees. The article talks about how to save ash trees.

　　Reading

　　1. banning transportation of ash trees, which will take beetles' nests to other areas.

　　2. drilling holes on the ash trees to inject a chemical pesticide that make beetles leave away ash trees.

　　3. planting trap trees that beetles like to lay their eggs on.

　　Listening

　　1. they cannot prohibit private companies that cut down ash trees to be firewood.)

　　2. drilling to much holes will damage ash trees. The cycle of injecting a pesticide is two years)

　　3. trap trees are beetles' food，which will increase the population of beetles and hurt more ash trees.)