Sentence Translation

1. Workers who can still demonstrate their capacity to carry out their work should not be asked to retire, simply because they have reached a certain age.

2. We had only expected around 20 people to apply for that post, but twice as many showed up. So we had to work overnight for the arrangement of interviews.

3. Many American companies now understand that they must study Chinese laws, trade practices and culture in order to be more effective in doing business with their new trading parnters.

4. Not long ago, people were still arguing over whether or not climate change was actually taking place. Now there is broad consensus that it is happening, and that human activities are largely to blame.

5. It is known that human intelligence is attributable to both heredity and environment, but the genetic factors are more important than the environmental ones.

Passage Translation

1. I think examinations are much better than homework. I prefer having exams at the end of a school year to doing homework every week. For me, the problem with homework is that the pressure is on you all the time, and everything you do counts towards your final result. With examinations you can work really hard only in the final stages. I also like to get up early and go through my notes on the day of the exam. That way, everything is fresh in my mind.

2. Listening is one of the things we do most. Yet listening isn't easy. First we are surrounded by noise. People talking or shouting, the sound of traffic, or the roar of airplanes overhead, which makes any listening job a challenge. Second, we often don't seem to remember even when we do listen. By the time the speaker has finished a 10-minutes' speech, the average person has already forgotten half of what was said. Within 48 hours, another 50% has been forgotten. In other words, we quickly forget nearly all of what we hear.