单选题 SECTION A MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are three passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE (1) I used to watch her from my kitchen window, she seemed so small as she muscled her way through the crowd of boys on the playground. The school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids as they played during recess. A sea of children, and yet to me, she stood out from them all. (2) I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball. I watched in wonder as she ran circles around the other kids. She managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net. The boys always tried to stop her but no one could. I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone. She would practice dribbling and shooting over and over again, sometimes until dark. One day I asked her why she practiced so much. She looked directly in my eyes and without a moment of hesitation she said, 'I want to go to college. The only way I can go is if I get a scholarship. I like basketball. I decided that if I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the best. My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don't count.' (3) Then she smiled and ran towards the court to repeat the routine I had seen over and over again. Well, I had to give it to her—she was determined. I watched her through those junior high years and into high school. Every week, she led her team to victory. One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled in her arms. (4) I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly I asked what was wrong. 'Oh, nothing,' came a soft reply. 'I am just too short.' The coach told her that at 5'5' she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team—much less offered a scholarship—so she should stop dreaming about college. She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. (5) I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet. She lifted her head from her hands and told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just did not understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college, if she truly wanted a scholarship, that nothing could stop her except one thing—her own attitude. He told her again, 'If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count.' The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was seen by a college recruiter. She was indeed offered a scholarship, a full ride, to a Division I, NCAA women's basketball team. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years. (6) It's true: If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count. PASSAGE TWO (1) Observe a child; any one will do. You will see that not a day passes in which he does not find something or other to make him happy, though he may be in tears the next moment. Then look at a man; any one of us will do. You will notice that weeks and months can pass in which every day is greeted with nothing more than resignation, and endured with polite indifference. Indeed, most men are as miserable as sinners, though they are too bored to sin—perhaps their sin is their indifference. But it is true that they so seldom smile that when they do we do not recognise their face, so distorted is it from the fixed mask we take for granted. And even then a man cannot smile like a child, for a child smiles with his eyes, whereas a man smiles with his lips alone. It is not a smile, but a grin; something to do with humour, but little to do with happiness. And then, as anyone can see, there is a point (but who can define that point?) when a man becomes an old man, and then he will smile again. (2) It would seem that happiness is something to do with simplicity, and that it is the ability to extract pleasure from the simplest things—such as a peach stone, for instance. (3) It is obvious that it is nothing to do with success. For Sir Henry Stewart was certainly successful. It is twenty years ago since he came down to our village from London, and bought a couple of old cottages, which he had knocked into one. He used his house as a weekend refuge. He was a barrister. And the village followed his brilliant career with something almost amounting to paternal pride. (4) I remember some ten years ago when he was made a King's Counsel, Amos and I, seeing him get off the London train, went to congratulate him. We grinned with pleasure; he merely looked as miserable as though he'd received a penal sentence. It was the same when he was knighted; he never smiled a bit, he didn't even bother to celebrate with a round of drinks at the 'Blue Fox'. He took his success as a child does his medicine. And not one of his achievements brought even a ghost of a smile to his tired eyes. (5) I asked him one day, soon after he'd retired to potter about his garden, what it was like to achieve all one's ambitious. He looked down at his roses and went on watering them. Then he said, 'The only value in achieving one's ambitious is that you then realize that they are not worth achieving.' Quickly he moved the conversation on to a more practical level, and within a moment we were back to a safe discussion on the weather. That was two years ago. (6) I recall this incident, for yesterday, I was passing his house, and had drawn up my cart just outside his garden wall. I had pulled in from the road for no other reason than to let a bus pass me. As I set there filling my pipe, I suddenly heard a shout of sheer joy come from the other side of the wall. (7) I peered over. There stood Sir Henry doing nothing less than a tribal war dance, of sheer unashamed ecstasy. Even when he observed my bewildered face staring over the wall he did not seem put out or embarrassed, but shouted for me to climb over. (8) 'Come and see, Jan. Look! I have done it at last! I have done it at last!' (9) There he was, holding a small box of earth in his hand. I observed three tiny shoots out of it. (10) 'And there were only three!' he said, his eyes laughing to heaven. (11) 'Three what?' I asked. (12) 'Peach stones', he replied. 'I've always wanted to make peach stones grow, even since I was a child, when I used to take them home after a party, or as a man after a banquet. And I used to plant them, and then forgot where I planted them. But now at last I have done it, and, what's more, I had only three stones, and there you are, one, two, three shoots,' he counted. (13) And Sir Henry ran off, calling for his wife to come and see his achievement—his achievement of simplicity. PASSAGE THREE (1) As unpleasant emotions go, anxiety is the sketchiest. It's a vague, pit-of-the-stomach dread that sneaks up to you—that unease you get when your boss says that she needs to talk to you right away, when the phone rings at 4:00 a.m., or when your dentist looks into your mouth and says 'Hmmmm' for the third time. (2) Lingering anxiety can keep you up at night, make you irritable, undermine your ability to concentrate, and either ruin your appetite or cause Olympian eating binges. And the constant state of readiness generated by anxiety—adrenaline pumping, heart racing, palms sweating—may contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease. How to prevent anxiety then? (3) Meditate. Maybe you're just high-strung. If so, meditation is worth a try. It cultivates a calmness that eases anxious feelings and offers a sense of control. A study at the University of Massachusetts found that volunteers who took an 8-week meditation course were considerably less anxious afterward. People who are high-strung find that they are dramatically calmer with 20 minutes of meditation in the morning and another 20 minutes after dinner. (4) If you've never done meditation, try this technique: Sit quietly in a comfortable position and take a few deep, cleansing breaths to relax your muscles. Then choose a calming word or phrase. (Experts suggest either a word or short phrase with religious significance, or the word one.) Silently repeat the word or phrase for 20 minutes. As you find your thoughts straying, gently return your focus to your repeated word and continue to breathe deeply. (5) Jog, walk, swim, or cycle. If you can't make time for meditation, be sure to make time for regular exercise. Exercise can have the same calming effect as meditation, particularly if it's something repetitive like running or swimming laps. Treatment? (6) Odds are that you can learn to handle anxiety better. Here's how. (7) Remember to breathe. When you're anxious, you tend to hold your breath or breathe too shallowly. That makes you feel more anxious. Breathing slowly and deeply can have a calming effect. To make sure that you're breathing correctly, place your hand on your diaphragm (横膈膜), just below your rib cage. Feel it rise with each inhalation and fall with each exhalation. (8) Analyze and act. The antidote (矫正方法) to anxiety is analysis and action. To rid yourself of that vague sense of dread, you have to figure out exactly what it is that you dread. Then you can map a plan of action to do something about it. Usually the first step in this action plan is to fund out more about the problem. (9) Let's say you are anxious about your competence on the job. Ask yourself, 'What, in particular, am I afraid that I'll muff?.' Maybe you're afraid that you'll get further behind and miss your deadlines. Or maybe you're worried that you're blowing it whenever you present your ideas in meetings. Are your worries founded? Have you had several near misses with deadlines? Are your suggestions routinely vetoed? If not, the anxiety is needless. If there is a real problem, work on a solution: Pace yourself to better meet deadlines, or join a public speaking class.

单选题 Expected noises are usually more bearable than unexpected ones of the like magnitude. The underlined part means ______.

单选题 Which of the following sentences indicates an obligation?

单选题 Tips for Applying to U.S. Colleges Ⅰ. George Mason University ■The largest 2 university in Virginia ■More than 100 different majors and specializations ■33,000 students, international students account for 3 Ⅱ. American education ■Expensive but 4 ■Best professors and best 5 Ⅲ. Application tips from Jennifer Tkacz ■Available financial aid It all depends and some universities provide 6 ■University Rankings in the U.S. The ranking system is not official, so it has little 7 ■Student Visas: give rise to a lot of 8 for students a)Be a 9 student to get a degree b)Have the 10 to cover your education c)Be 11 and decide to return

单选题 I can't put up with ______ telling me about it.

单选题 ______, it doesn't look like that anyone is going to just stop eating.

单选题 Benjamin was sweating bullets by the time the police had finished questioning him. The underlined part means ______.

单选题 It is easy to perceive the ______ between their material prosperity and the emptiness of their lives.

单选题 Odd ______ it sounds, cosmic inflation is a scientifically plausible consequence of some respected ideas in elementary particle physics.

单选题 Which of the following contains an adverbial clause of cause?

单选题 Which of the following sentences has a subject complement? ______

单选题 He has been up to his chin in his research. The underlined part means ______.

单选题 Read carefully the following excerpt on parenting debate, and then write your response in NO LESS THAN 200 words, in which you should: ● summarize the main message of the excerpt, and then ● comment on whether abandonment is the right way to discipline children. You should support yourself with information from the excerpt. Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks. The Lost Boy and Japan's Parenting Debate A boy was lost in the woods while the family was foraging for wild vegetables. But then the story changed—he was lost because he had been abandoned by his parents and not just once, but twice in a very short period of time. Abuse? Monster parents? Or was it just bad parenting? Hardly anybody voiced support for the father, there was simply no debate about that. It was the consensus that the parents should not have let the boy out of their sight. Naoki Ogi, a TV personality and pedagogy expert, better known as 'Ogi-mama,' condemned the parents outright, saying this was neglect and abuse. He also noted and criticized how many parents in Japan tend to see their children as their personal possessions. One famous morning talk show host, Tomoaki Ogura, sympathized with the parents on Monday. On his Fuji TV show 'Tokudane!' Mr Ogura said, 'To say 'If you're so bad, we can't take you along, just stay here' is valid way of scolding a child.' Kiyomimi, a mother of a child nearly two years old tweeted, 'Forced discipline is wrong, but when your child is throwing stones at people and cars, and won't listen to reason, then what are you supposed to do?' So the Japanese public has spent this past week discussing good and bad parenting, and what is acceptable punishment and what is abuse.

单选题 Which of the italicized parts functions as an object?

单选题 The only candidate ______ may defeat him has quit.

单选题 Listen to the following passage. Altogether the passage will be read to you four times. During the first reading, which will be done at normal speed, listen and try to understand the meaning. For the second and third readings, the passage will be read sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase, with intervals of 15 seconds. The last reading will be done at normal speed again and during this time you should check your work. You will then be given 1 minute to check through your work once more. Characteristics of a Good Reader To improve your reading habits, / you must understand the characteristics of a good reader.

单选题 The boy admits the fact that playing video games ______ him from doing his homework.

单选题 'What do you think he'll tell them about you?' The italicized part is ______ of the sentence.

单选题 I'm sorry, but what you think ______ is not of importance to me.

单选题 The Spanish team, who are not in superb form, will be doing their best next week to ______ themselves on the German team for last year's defeat.