Ⅰ. Vocabulary and grammar (30’)
Directions: Beneath each sentence there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence. Mark your answers on the answer sheet.
1. Language, culture, and personality may be considered ____ of each other in thought, but they are inseparable in fact.
A indistinctly
B separately
C irrelevantly
D independently.
2. Watching me pulling the calf awkwardly to the barn, the Irish milkmaid fought hard to ___ her laughter.
A hold back
B hold on
C hold out
D hold up
3. The manager gave one of the salesgirls an accusing look for her ___ attitude toward customers.
A impartial
B mild
C hostile
D opposing.
4. I ___with thanks the help of my colleagues in the preparation of this new column.
A express
B confess
C verify
D acknowledge
5. It is strictly ___ that access to confidential documents is denied to all but a few.
A secured
B forbidden
C regulated
D determined
6. The pollution question as well as several other issues is going to be discussed when the Congress is in ___ again next spring.
A assembly
B session
C conference
D convention.
7. Christmas is a Christian holiday usually celebrated on December 25th __ the birth of Jesus Christ.
A in accordance with
B in terms of
C in favor of
D in honor of
8. Since it is late to change my mind now, I am ___ to carrying out the plan.
A obliged
B committed
C engaged
D resolved
9. It was a bold idea to build a power station in the deep valley, but it ___ as well as we had hoped.
A came off
B went off
C brought out
D made out
10. To survive in the intense trade competition between countries, we must ___ the qualities and varieties of products we make to the world market demand.
A improve
B enhance
C guarantee
D gear
11. How can I ever concentrate if you __ continually __ me with silly questions?
A have...interrupted
B had...interrupted
C are...interrupting
D were... Interrupting
12. When you have finished with that video tape, don’t forget to put it in my drawer, ___?
A do you
B will you
C don’t you
D won’t you
13. He left orders that nothing __ touched until the police arrived here.
A should be
B ought to be
C must be
D would be
14. Mr. White works with a chemicals import&export company, but he ___ for this industrial fair, since he is on leave.
A has worked
B works
C has been working
D is working
15. The physicist has made a discovery, __ of great importance to the progress of science and technology.
A I think which is
B that I think is
C which I think is
D which I think it is
16. The team can handle whatever ___.
A that needs handling
B which needs handling
C it needs handling
D needs to be handled.
17. She is ___ a musician than her brother.
A much of
B much as
C more of
D more as
18. I was to have made a speech if ___.
A I was not called away
B nobody would have called me away
C I had not been called away
D nobody called me away.
19. Animals that could not __ themselves to the changed environment perished and those that could survived.
A change
B adapt
C modify
D conform
20. Beethoven is my favorite musician. I regard him as ___ other musicians.
A superior to
B more superior than
C more superior to
D superior than
Ⅱ.Reading comprehension
Passage A
Gail Pasterczyk, the principle of Indian Pines Elementary in Palm Beach County, Fla., has added two or three new teaching positions each of the past three year. She is adding two more teachers next year as well as replacing those she’ll lose to maternity leave, transfers, and retirement. She doesn’t know where the new teacher s will come from, if the new hires will be any good ,and where she‘ll find room for all of them .Indian Pines already has 27 portable classrooms and is waiting to break ground on a two-story, 25-classroom addition. “When you start reducing class size, you’ve got to find more teachers, and you run out of space,” she says. “That’s the reality.” Her school district ,one of the nation’s largest ,has sent recruiters across the country ,and even to Mexico and the Philippines ,to fill an expected 1,700 teaching vacancies before the fall.“We are in a race to keep the schools staffed,” says Robert Pinkos, a Palm County recruiter who will travel to Baltimore and Madrid next month to troll for teachers.
Two and a half years after Florida voters adopted a constitutional amendment to reduce class sizes , Palm Beach County-and every other school district in the state –are tripping over a major stumbling block :There just aren’t enough good teachers to go around :With classes in kindergarten through third grade capped at 18 students ,fourth through eighth held at 22,and high school limited to 25,the state will need to hire an estimated 29,604 new teachers by 2009-a prospect that has many people worried .“I have every reason to expect that the quality of teachers will suffer,” says John Winn, the state’s education commissioner.
Nationwide, 33 states now have laws that restrict class size. And the politically popular educational reform has proved successful in some areas, particularly among the lowest –performing students. In Burke county, N.C., for example ,discipline problems are down and test scores are up, even for the most disadvantaged students in the district.“On paper these kids should not be succeeding, but they are,” says Susan Wilson, a former teacher and now director of elementary education in the rural county.
But this success comes at a price .It means hiring more teachers, building more classrooms, and retraining teachers to work with smaller groups of students. And it means, critics maintain, that states pit their own district against one another in the race to hire. “When you mandate class- size reduction statewide, the suburban schools tend to draw the best new teachers, can’t attract the best candidates,” says Steven Rivkin, an economics professor at Amherst College who has studied the effects of class-size reduction on teacher quality .Any gains from cutting class size could be undermined by hiring lower quality teachers.
Resources, Proponents, contend that the reform would be relatively pain-less if existing resources were managed well. “Hiring more teachers is only part of the solution,” says Charles Achilles, one of the first researchers to study the effects of reducing class size. “The best programs for class-size reduction not only hire more teachers but reassign existing specialty teachers to get them back in the classroom.”
Florida policymakers are trying to find their own way out of the class-size quandary. This month, the Legislature is considering a proposal to roll back some of the size limits in exchange for an increase in teacher pay. Gov.Jeb Bush, who opposed the constitutional amendment in 2002, argues that the compromise will attract more top-quality teachers to the state while reining in costs. Voters could see the proposed change on the ballot as early as September .In the meantime, recruiter Pinkos continues his search for new teachers, something working 10-hour days. His pitch? “Palm Beach is very beautiful, but the small classes are one of the most attractive things I can tell them.”
1.In describing the result of the new constitutional amendment to reduce class size ,the author comments：“Palm Beach County –and every other school district in the state –are tripping over a major stumbling block ...”to imply ( ).
A. the education authorities will trip to Mexico and the Philippines for new teachers
B. there will be problems for placing redundant teachers
C. quality of teachers will probably go down
D. students are likely to get more sophisticated education in smaller class
2. “On paper these kids should not be succeeding, but they are” implies ( ).
A. reducing class sizes has more positive effects than negative ones
B. reducing class sizes does achieve satisfactory effects on disadvantageous students C. smaller class prevent the children from failing in tests
D. smaller class works best for students with lacklustre performance
3. Which of the following is TRUE, according to the passage ( )
A. Class size reduction increases difficulty to hire teachers in affluent districts.
B. Cutting class sizes is no better than reassigning existing specialty teachers.
C. If urban school cannot hire enough teachers, they can hire specialty teachers.
D. Generally speaking, vicious competing for teachers will counterbalance the positive effects of smaller classes.
4. “Qandary” (para.6) is closes to ( )
A. dilemma
B. polemic
C. enigma
D. hoodwink
5. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Means to enhance comprehensive education in U.S.
B. Pros and cons of cutting class sizes in U.S.
C. American students could receive better schooling
D. Variants in rural education
Passage B
Advances in surveillance technology could seriously damage individual privacy unless drastic measures are taken to protect personal data, scientists have said. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, gave warning last year that Britain was "sleepwalking" into a surveillance society. Yesterday the country's leading engineers developed the theme, fleshing out a dystopian vision that not even George Orwell could have predicted.
They said that travel passes, supermarket loyalty cards and mobile phones could be used to track individuals' every move. They also predicted that CCTV （close-circuit television）footage could become available for public consumption and that terrorists could hijack the biometric chips in passports and rig them up as a trigger for explosives.
The report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance-Challenges of Technological Change, argues that the scientists developing surveillance technology should also think about measures to protect privacy. "Just as security features have been incorporated into car design, privacy-protecting features should be incorporated into the design of products and services that rely on divulging personal information," the report says.
"There is a choice between a Big Brother world where individual privacy is almost extinct and a world where the data are kept by individual organizations or services and kept secret and secure." The report says that shoppers should be allowed to buy goods and services without revealing their identities to the companies that provide them. It argues that travel and supermarket loyalty cards and mobile phones are mines of personal information that should be closely scrutinized to make sure that data is not abused.
Professor Nigel Gilbert, chairman of the report group, said: "In most cases, supermarket loyalty cards will have your name on. Why? What is needed in a loyalty card is for the supermarket to know what has been bought so you can get your discounts.
"Does it need to identify you? No, it just needs authentication that you've bought the goods. It is the same for Oyster cards on the Tube, some of which you have to register for. These are all apparently small things but people are being required to give away more identification information than is required."
Ian Forbes, the report's coauthor, said that because footage from CCTV cameras could be digitized and potentially stored for ever, that necessitated greater scrutiny of the controlling networks. Britain has about five million CCTV cameras, one for every 12 people.
The report says: "Give this potential, it cannot be guaranteed that surveillance images will remain private, or will not be altered, misused or manipulated." The report also gives warning that biometric passports and identity cards would give fresh opportunities to fraudsters and terrorists to read remotely the data chips that they contain. It says that it could be possible to rig a bomb to go off in the presence of a certain person or someone of a particular nationality.
The report proposes that the Information Commissioner should be given extended powers, and that stiffer penalties, including prison sentences, should be introduced for those who misuse personal data. The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee is expected to announce an inquiry into the growing use of surveillance.
6. When Richard Thomas gave warning that Britain was "sleepwalking" into a surveillance society, he was telling us that _______.
（A）Britain was not going to become a surveillance society
（B）Britain was fully aware of the possible future of a surveillance society
（C）Britain was fighting against the surveillance society
（D）Britain was not realizing the implication of the surveillance society
7. According to the report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, _______.
（A）privacy-protecting technology should be developed on the basis of surveillance technology
（B）technological change can hardly challenge the protection of individual privacy
（C）scientists should focus more on the development of products protecting privacy
（D）the design of surveillance products should take into account the protection of privacy
8. According to the passage, the greatest threat to an individual in a surveillance society is _______.
（A）your every move will be tracked
（B）your personal information will be publicized
（C）your personal property will be stolen
（D）your life will be taken
9. George Orwell is mentioned in the passage because _______.
（A）he was the one who coined the expression "Big Brother"
（B）he was a famous British novelist in the 20th century
（C）he described a world where individual privacy is denied
（D）he conducted the investigation of the damage done to individual privacy
10. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
（A）Supermarkets often get more personal information of customers than is required.
（B）It is suggested that the surveillance images should be kept top secret.
（C）The coverage of CCTV cameras in England is quite extensive.
（D）Tough measures and penalties are proposed to stop the misuse of personal data.
Question1-3
Every four years, beginning in 1984, the artists Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese have collected political ads from the Presidential election, adding a dozen or so particularly striking new spots to their project, “Political Advertisement.” On a recent evening, they met at Goldcrest studios, in the meatpacking district, to work on the seventh edition of the film, which has become what Reese calls “the longest-running video art project in the world.” The artists would be screening the film--now a seventy-five-minute compilation of a hundred and two hundred ads, spanning fifty-years--at the Museum of modern Art, on October 30th.
Reese, at the keyboard of an Avid editing workstation, called up ads, while Muntadas looked over his shoulder and made comments. They viewed ads featuring telephones---Clinton’s 3 A.M ad, Obama’s response, and a McCain phone ad -- and discuss which on they should use. Seven days of watching political commercials had left them feeling a little a dazed. Muntadas seemed somewhat weary, but Reese was animated, almost punchy. Muntadas, who is sixty-six, grew up in Spain under Franco, an experience that sharpened his awareness of the dangers of political propaganda. Reese, fifty-two, watched political ads as a kid in Washington. D.C., and he views the medium with nostalgia, even affection. “One of my first experience was waiting in line in my elementary school and seeing a classmates with a can o Goldwater ginger ale,” he said.
Reese explained that, in making their selections they hoped both to spotlight innovative ads and to show how certain motifs return again and again. The politician’s desk, which Nixon used to considerable effect in 1960, is one such trope; the testimonial, such as Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama, dates to the earliest political ads, like those in the Eisenhower-Stevenson race, in 1952.
This year, in addition to hundreds of ads produced by the campaigns and the national committees, there are ads made by political-action committees and special-interest groups. And there are the straight-to-YouTube videos, like “Obama Girl”, and all the smashup and parodies these videos inspired. “The campaign can no longer control its massaging--that’s the big change this year,” Reese said. “But Obama does well in that environment,” he added, calling up the Senator’s smiling face. He’s an empty screen, on which people project what they want him to be.” Their potential selections included the Phil de Vellis” Vote Different’’ mashup of Ridley Scott’s 1984 Apple ad, with Hillary Clinton as the Big Brother figure on the screen, and the California Nurse Association’s anti-Palin ad, “One Hearbeat Away,” which is a remake of an anti-Dan Quayle ad from 1988.
Watching “Political Advertisement” in its entirety is a powerful but disorienting experience. Time hurtles forward with each Presidential election, but there is no clear progress on the fundamental issues. Jobs, better schools, tax relief, help for small businesses, change, peace through strength and out-of-touch Washington insiders ebb and flow in importance. It’s morning again in America in 1984, with the Reagan ads, but soon ti’s nighttime, with the darkening sky of a 1992 Ross Perot spot on the national debt. Tonally, the film is a perfect hybrid of its creators’ sensibilities. It’s funny and nostalgic and has an innocent quality, while at the same time offering a bleak view of a specifically American form of propaganda, born in 1952, that has grown to shape our political process--not just the way we sell our propaganda, born in 1952, that has grown to shape our political process--not just the way we sell our politicians but the nature of the political discourse itself.
The film will close, Reese said, with an excerpt from the music video that Jesse Dylan and Willian made from Obama’s “Yes. We Can.” speech. It points the way toward a new kind of user-made political advertising, in which it is impossible to say where personal expression leaves off and propaganda begins.
“This edit’s still going to end ‘To Be Continued,’ same as every other,” Reese said. “We’ll be back.”
{C}{C}{C}1. {C}{C}{C}Describe Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese’s art” political Advertisement.”
{C}{C}{C}2. {C}{C}{C}Why do they make these selections?
{C}{C}{C}3. {C}{C}{C}Explain the sentence “Watching Political Advertisement.”
Question 4-5
The first thing you want to do in working on this area of social interaction is to listen. Listening is the most important aspect of improving communication skills. Many times people think too hard about what they are going to say that they are not receptive to others. Make sure that you say as little as possible and listen as much as possible.
Less is more when it comes to social skills. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who did not let you get a word in edgewise? Sometimes people just need to talk and they need minimal feedback. In order to listen effectively you should practice active listening skill.
Active listening involves being receptive to what the other person has to say. You may want to repeat or reword what you hear on occasion to make sure that the lines of conversation are open. Remember when you are working on improving communication skills the first thing to do is to listen and respond. Rest assures you will have plenty of time to add input later.
Improving communication skills involves more than just using the right words at the right time. Communication is a complex system that involves a number of different talents including eye-contact, body language and the ability to work with both functional and figurative language. Timing is a big skill to develop too when you are working on improving communication skills.
The ability to communicate effectively can make the difference between having a decent job and having a lucrative career. A person who works diligently on improving communication skills in the work environment is sure to move up in the ranks in record time. You may find that you are in a higher level in no time at all.
Once you became a boss in the company, you’ll face new challenges that make more demands on your ability to deal with people on a daily basis. When you have effectively worked on improving communication skills you find that you are better able to motivate and influence others in the work place.
These skills are very important in our personal lives as well. When you work on improving communication skills at work you may also want to work on this aspect of your talents in dealing with people for your private life as well. Imagine how much less stress there is in a home that practices effective communicative strategies every day.
This may sound unnatural but if you consider what improving communication skills entails you will see that it makes perfect sense to utilize in the home as well as the work environment. Consider what it takes to be effective in the communicative arena and it will all come together for you. Once you have mastered these few simple skills they will become second nature to you.
4. What rules should be followed to improve communication skills?
5. How do you understand “they will become second nature to you” in the last line of the last paragraph?
Ⅲ. Writing (30’)
Write a composition of about 400 words on the following topic.
The Delight of Reading
