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敢为天下先
52. According to the first paragraph, an American student is allowed ________ .
A. to live in a different university
B. to take a particular course in a different university C. to live at home and drive to classes
D. to get two degrees from two different universities
53. American university students are usually under pressure of work because ______.
A. their academic performance will affect their future careers B. they are heavily involved in student affairs C. they have to observe university discipline D. they want to run for positions of authority
54. Some students are enthusiastic for positions in student organizations probably because ________ .
A. they hate the constant pressure and strain of their study B. they will then be able to study longer in the university C. such positions help them get better jobs D. such positions are usually well paid
55. The student organizations seem to be effective in ______. A. dealing with the academic affairs of the university
B. keeping up the students’ enthusiasm for social activities
C. evaluating students’ performance by bringing them before a court D. ensuring that the students observe university regulations Section B Yes / No / Not Given (5 points)
Directions: In this part, you will have 5 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on the Answer Sheet. For questions 56 - 60, mark
Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. Questions 56-60 are based on the following passage.
After I left Debrecen I walked for days and put up my tent at night. An old couple driving a horse and cart stopped and spoke to me. I tried out my broken Hungarian and they laughed. But it was obvious they were offering me a lift, so I got up on the cart, with my backpack and tent. They offered me some fiery apricot liqueur, home-made by the look of it. We drank it from the bottle.
The land was flat. You could see forever. You could see as far as the future.
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At first we could still see the Hortobagy River, brown in the weak sunshine, and carpets of sunflowers. But then, as we jolted along a track in the cart, there was just the puszta—the dry Great Plain of Hungary. It’s where the Hungarians grow their wheat and catch their wild horses.
A Hungarian poet once said that the earth and the sky are one in the puszta. I understand what he means. As far as you can see in every direction, the sky comes down and touches the land. This dry yellow land is not beautiful in the usual sense, but being in it, being part of it, I felt a great sense of peace. I have always hated mountains and skyscrapers because they are bigger than I am. But this ... When I lay down and watched the puszta from the back of the cart, it was like being in a great safe flat bed that had no sides but just went on forever. It was then, at that moment, that I felt I could do anything in the world that I wanted. I was eighteen years old.
Then, in the distance, we saw the horses. At first there was just a cloud of dust. Then, suddenly, about ten small, wiry, brown Hungarian wild horses charged across the Great Plain. They got near enough for me to see them tossing their heads. Two csikos, Hungarian cowboys, were chasing them. The cowboys saw the cart and shouted something. The old man shouted something back and he and the old woman laughed. They said something to me in Hungarian, probably trying to explain what the cowboys had said. I fell asleep. When I woke up, the horses and the two csikos had gone but nothing about the scenery had changed. We were still moving forward but it was as if we had stopped.
I didn’t want us ever to arrive anywhere. I wanted to stay on that cart in the Great Plain forever. But at the same time I knew that when the journey was over, everything was going to be just fine. And it was. Statements:
56. Debrecen is a town in Hungary.
57. The writer felt a sense of horror because nothing in the scenery was bigger than her.
58. The writer liked flat scenery better than mountains. 59. The grass on the Great Plain didn’t change very much.
60. The writer described a moment when she knew that everything in her life would be bad.
Section C Short Answer Questions (20 points)
Directions: In this section, there are 2 passages followed by 10 questions or unfinished statements. Read the passages carefully, then answer the questions in the fewest possible words (not exceeding 10 words). Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet.
Questions 61-65 are based on the following passage.
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Why do some students do better than others? To find out, the Reader’s Digest invited 2,130 high-school seniors to take a special academic test and then answer a list of personal questions. Among the poll’s top findings: Strong families give kids an edge in school. For instance, students who lived with two parents scored high more often on our test than students who didn’t. Students who regularly shared mealtimes with their families tested better than those who didn’t. This “family gap” showed up for students of all backgrounds.
Today’s youth are far more optimistic about themselves and their futures than is generally believed. Four of five were confident. They would be able to “making things better for myself and for other people.” Almost the same number described their lives at home as “pretty good” or “wonderful”. As has been in other polls, not all groups
tested equally well. Children with college-educated parents tested
better than kids whose parents didn’t go past high school. Whites tended to score higher than blacks. Boys generally scored higher than girls. But more importantly, the Reader’s Digest poll revealed that, within each group, strong families were a significant factor.
With the help of Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., last spring, the Digest surveyed a representative cross-section of high-school seniors in classrooms across the nation. Our paper-and-pencil poll asked eight questions in each of the six subjects: math, science, literature, geography, history and government. Questions:
61. The purpose of the Reader’s Digest poll is to ________ .
62. What does the word “an edge” in Paragraph Two probably mean? 63. What did the Reader’s Digest poll show?
64. One of the factors in higher scores by students in every group
is______.
65. In the Reader’s Digest survey, how many questions were asked altogether?
Questions 66-70 are based on the following passage.
For centuries man dreamed of achieving vertical flight. In 400 A. D.
Chinese children played with a fan-like toy that spun upwards and fell back to earth as rotation ceased. Leonardo da Vinci conceived the first mechanical apparatus, called a “Helix”, which could carry a man straight up, but this was only a design and was never tested.
The ancient dream was finally realized in 1940 when a Russian immigrant, an aeronautical engineer, piloted a strange-looking craft of steel tubing with a rotating fan on top. It rose awkwardly and vertically into the air from a standing start, hovered a few feet above the ground, went sideways and
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backwards, and then settled back to earth. That vehicle was called a helicopter.
Imaginations were fired. Men dreamed of commuting to work in their own personal helicopter. Every man would have one in his backyard. People
anticipated that vertical flight transports would carry millions of passengers as do the airliners of today. Such fantastic expectations were not fulfilled. The helicopter has now become an extremely versatile machine. It excels in military missions, carrying troops, guns and strategic instruments where other aircraft cannot go. Corporations use them as airborne offices, many metropolitan areas use them in police work, construction and logging
companies employ them in various advantageous ways, engineers use them for site selection and surveying, and oil companies use them as the best way to make offshore and remote work stations accessible to crews and supplies. Any urgent mission to a hard-to-get-to place is a likely task for a helicopter. Among their other multitude of uses, they deliver people across town, fly to and from airports, assist in rescue work, and aid in the search for missing or wanted persons. Questions:
66. According to the passage, the first mechanical apparatus that could fly vertically was designed by________________ .
67. How were men’s imaginations about vertical flight transportation fired? 68. Oil companies use helicopters as the best way to accessible to crews and supplies.
69. What’s the main topic of the passage?
70. What do people expect the helicopters to do as today’s air liners? Section D Summary (10 points)
Directions: In this part, there is 1 passage followed with a summary. Read the passage carefully and complete the summ-ary with the appropriate words of the passage. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet. Questions 71-75 are based on the following passage. London wins Olympics
2012 event will be secure, pledges capital’s mayor By Paul Kelso
Mr Blair, who had helped to lay the groundwork for victory during three days of intense one-to-one lobbying of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, said hard work had paid off: “We had the right message that we wanted, a strong message for the Olympic mood.” Where Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris had sought to reassure and flatter the IOC with
presidential promises and high-budget tourism videos, Lord Coe set out a challenge to a movement sometimes more concerned with its internal politics
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than its mission. “Some might say your decision today is between five similar bids. That would be to undervalue the opportunity before you,” he said. “In the past you have made bold decisions. This is a decision about which city will help us show a new generation why sport matters. On behalf of the youth of today, the athletes of tomorrow and the Olympians of the future, we humbly submit the bid of London 2012.” London’s mayor Ken Livingstone and the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, insisted that the London 2012 Olympics would be secure despite last week’s terrorist attacks. “We have reassured the IOC that we have the security to handle the games,” said Mr Livingstone, adding that the Metropolitan Police had been involved in the advisory group for the Athens games. “The IOC know, through the experience of the 1972 Munich Olympics, that there is nowhere that can ever be
completely safe but there is nowhere that will be safer than London,” he said. Summary:
According to Mr Blair, London had a persuasive message, which was in keeping with the Olympic mood. While the respective presidents for Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris made (71) ________ to the IOC and used expensive videos to make them confident about their bids and also to (72) ________ them, Coe aimed to challenge the Committee. The IOC is at times more concerned with its own politics rather than with what it is supposed to do. Mr Coe told the Committee that their (73) ________ was about which city would help show young people why (74) ______ is important. He then presented the (75) ________ on behalf of the youth of today, the athletes of tomorrow and the Olympians of the future. Part VI Cloze (10 minutes, 15 points)
Directions: There are 15 blanks in the passage. For each blank, some letters of the word has been given(not exceeding 3 letters). Read the passage below and think of the word which best fits each blank. Use only one word in each blank. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet.
Education is a long process that not only provides us with basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, but is also essential in shaping our future lives. From the moment we enter (76)k________n as small children, and as we progress through primary and secondary education, we are laying the (77)f________ for the life ahead of us. We
must(78)d p e ourselves to work hard so that we can pass exams and gain the (79)q________s we will need to secure a good job. We must also acquire valuable life skills so that we can fit in and work with those around us. And of course (80)h______ education helps us to understand how we can stay fit and healthy.
For most people, this process ends when they are in their mid-to-late teens. For others, (81)h______, it is the beginning of a lifetime of learning. After they finish school, many progress to (82)f______r education where
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