Britain's private schools are one of its most successful exports. The children of the wealthy【C1】______to them, whether from China, Nigeria or Russia: the number of foreign pupils rose by 1.4% in the last year alone. 【C2】______foreign students, whether educated in British private schools or elsewhere, are decreasingly likely to go to English universities. According to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, 307,200【C3】______students began their studies in the country in 2012-13, down from 312,000 two years earlier and the first【C4】______in 29 years. Student numbers from the rest of the EU fell—【C5】______a result of the increase in annual tuition【C6】______in England from ￡6,000 a year to ￡9,000. But【C7】______from India and Pakistan declined most sharply. 【C8】______the visa regime for private schools, which is extremely【C9】______(the Home Office counts private schools as favored sponsors), student visas have been tightened. Foreign students used to be allowed to work for up to two years after graduating. They now have only four months to find a job paying upwards of ￡20,600 if they want to stay in Britain. This change was【C10】______to deal with sham colleges that were【C11】______offering two-year work visas. But it seems to have put【C12】______serious students too. Nick Hillman of the Higher Education Policy Institute says the government has sent unclear messages about the sort of immigration it wants to【C13】______. An emphasis on holding down net immigration discourages young Indians and Pakistanis in particular. Australia and America, which have more【C14】______entry criteria for students, are becoming more favored【C15】______. Colin Riordan, Cardiff University's vice-chancellor, adds that Britain's student-visa regime has become more burdensome and complicated【C16】______. As a result, Britain is losing out to other countries in the【C17】______for talent—an odd thing,【C18】______how often the prime minister bangs on about the "global race". Its unwelcoming stand will【C19】______its long-term prospects. And the【C20】______of foreign students from leading British private schools to American colleges may have another, somewhat happier, consequence: America might become rather better at cricket.

BSection III Writing/B

BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B

Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives. To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so. Medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a predominantly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients (营养成分) captured in the product it was relatively inefficient. Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safer and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat (栖息地) loss and to diminishing biodiversity. What's more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050. Yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions. All this means that agriculture in the 21st century will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th. This will require radical thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the notion that agriculture can be "zero impact". The key will be to abandon the rather simple and static measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage. Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons(正反两方面) of all the various ways land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield; energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity. What is crucial is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

Brands are basically a promise. They tell consumers what quality to expect from a【C1】______and show off its personality. Firms invest a lot on the image of their brands to【C2】______sales and loyalty. But measuring their value is hard. Millward Brown, a market-research company, is one of several that takes a stab at it. It has just published its annual ranking of the world's "most【C3】______" brands based on consumers'【C4】______and the performance of the companies that own them. The top 100 are collectively worth $2.6 trillion, the firm【C5】______Apple remains the world's most【C6】______brand, worth $185 billion,【C7】______the head of three major technology companies. However, it may have been a【C8】______year for Apple in many respects: rivals are gaining share of the smartphone market;【C9】______and margins have been【C10】______. And Apple hasn't unveiled a major new product since last October.【C11】______. none of the three major technology companies has increased much in value since last year perhaps because they have been refining their products【C12】______being startlingly innovative. Microsoft, which tried to be startling by【C13】______a radical new operating system, has seen its brand value fall. Apple's big rival, Samsung, jumped 25 places, partly by out-innovating Apple and partly by【C14】______its advertising expenditure by $1.6 billion. Visa was one of the main brand sponsors for the 2012 Olympic games in London. But many of the big gainers【C15】______growth in emerging markets. That helps explain the rise in the value of beer brands like Brazil's Brahma, which is worth 61% more than last year. Ten-cent, an internet services company, benefited from being innovative and Chinese.【C16】______sales slowed in Europe, Zara, a high-street fashion retailer introduced online shopping for customers in China Luxury【C17】______companies tend their brands even more carefully than most. Gucci, whose brand value increased by almost 50%, has invested in technology to【C18】______its online and mobile presence. The biggest riser this year,【C19】______. is Prada, whose brand value【C20】______63% as it increased sales in both old markets and new. But even in Western Europe its most enthusiastic customers were Asian tourists.

The European Union reached a preliminary deal to curb banker"s compensation that would drastically limit the account that can be paid in bonuses. Britain resisted the move to cap the ratio between bankers" fixed and variable pay. In a nod to opposition from the City of London the new rules treat long-term incentives linked to equities and bonds more favourably. The deal has to be agreed on by finance ministries next week. The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is still majority owned by the British taxpayer five years after a government bail-out, reported an annual pre-tax loss of ￡ 5. 2 billion, mostly because of an accounting quirk connected to the value of its own debts. RBS"s loss was put in the shade , however, when Bankia later posted a net loss for 2012 of ￡ 19 billion. The Spanish government owns just under half the bank, but that is expected soon to rise to 70%. A report by McKinsey underlined the impact of the financial crisis on annual cross-border capital flows, which fell by 60% from 2007 to $ 4. 6 trillion last year. The study says that financial globalisation has "stalled" and that markets have reached an "inflection point" that could lead to a "Balkanised" structure based on local, rather than global, banking systems. Japan"s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, nominated Haruhiko Kuroda to become the next governor of the Bank of Japan. Mr Kuroda is the current head of the Asian Development Bank and had been a vocal critic of the BOJ. Mr Abe has turned the central bank"s record into a political issue, urging it to do more to help "the real economy". India"s government unveiled the country"s most important budget in years, as it seeks to boost output while controlling inflation. Growth has cooled rapidly to around 5% . The official forecast says that the economy will expand by up to 6. 6% in 2013—2014, but the opposition is quick to point out that the estimate for this year was overly optimistic.

In this section, you are asked to write an essay based on the following information. Make comments and express your own opinion. You should write at least 150 words. 如今许多人热衷于参加各种考试以获得证书。有的人这样做是为了获得求职的优势。还有人这样做只是跟风。你的看法如何?

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

With its sandy beaches, picturesque ruins and blue waters, the Isle of Wight is an idyllic spot off England"s southern coast. Wealthy Londoners sail their boats there. It seems odd that such a place should contain some of the worst-performing schools in England. But it does; and in this, the Isle of Wight is not quite as strange as it seems. Provisional figures show that in 2013 just 49% of 16-year-olds on the island got at least five C grades, including in English and maths, in GCSE exams. That is fewer than in any of London"s 32 boroughs, or indeed anywhere in the southern half of England apart from nearby Portsmouth. In the previous year the Isle of Wight was second to bottom in the whole country. Just 23% of pupils entitled to free school meals got five decent grades, compared with a national average of 36%. In September the island"s schools were deemed so bad that Hampshire County Council took them over. Part of the explanation is distinctively local. Luring good teachers to an out-of-the-way spot is hard. In 2011 the island endured a muddled transition from the sort of three-tier school system common in America, with primary, middle and secondary schools, to the two-tier one that is standard in England. But its results were bad even before that change. The Isle of Wight"s real problems are structural. It suffers from three things that might appear to be advantages but are actually the opposite. The island lacks a large city; it has some, but not many, poor children; and it is almost entirely white. But these days pupils, including poor ones, often fare better in inner cities than elsewhere. In Tower Hamlets, an east London borough that is the third most deprived place in England, children entitled to free school meals do better in GCSE exams than do all children in the country as a whole. Bangladeshis, who are concentrated in that borough, used to perform considerably worse than whites nationally; now they do better.

Suppose you have received an award which means much to you. Write a thank-you speech to 1) deliver at the ceremony, and 2) thank those people who have given you encouragement and help. You should write about 100 words.

BPart BDirections: Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following information./B

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

Suppose you ordered a hair dryer online at the cost of $22, but only received an empty package box. Something must be wrong. Write a letter to 1) complain about it, and 2) ask for a refund or another delivery. You should write about 100 words. Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address.

It"s 2:45 p. m. on a Wednesday, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is in the backseat of a black Chevy Tahoe that"s inching its way to city hall along the 101 freeway. This stretch of the often clogged road is eight lanes, but there are so many cars on it that everyone is moving at about 30 km/h, a single mass of steel and glass lurching toward downtown. Just a few hours earlier, Garcetti was traveling a lot faster. To get to an event in University Cit-y, about 16 km from his office, Garcetti took the city"s Red Line subway, which can reach speed of up to 110 km/h—a pace L. A. "s rush-hour drivers can only dream about. Persuading more Angele-nos to take the train could go a long way toward solving one of L. A. "s most intractable problems. " We don"t need people to completely give up their cars," he says while holding onto a pole on the Red Line. "But right now, we average 1. 1 people per car. If we could get that to 1.6, the traffic problem would go away. " In L. A. , cars are a source of smog, billions of dollars in lost productivity every year and endless frustration for residents. "Every working person plans their life around traffic in this town," say Zev Yaro-slavsky, a Los Angeles County supervisor and longtime friend of Garcetti"s. " Building a transportation infrastructure is something that needs to be focused on, and Eric gets that. " Should Garcetti, 43—who was elected in May as the youngest mayor of L. A. in more than a century—ever manage to get the freeways flowing, it would be a triumph. And it would only begin to cure what ails L. A. Los Angeles" structural problems are daunting. The city has fewer jobs now than it did in 1990, with a regional unemployment rate that is more than 2 points higher than the national average. L. A. is also buckling under health care and pension costs and is scaling back public services to compensate. The 2014—2015 budget is projected to be $ 242 million in the red. As the Los Angeles 2020 Commission, a group of business, labor and public-sector leaders charged by the city council with diagnosing the region"s ills, put it in a December report, " Los Angeles is barely treading water while the rest of the world is moving forward. "

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

Directions: More and more people choose to travel abroad in their vacations. Many people believe that traveling abroad benefit them a lot. In this section, you are asked to write an essay on the benefits of traveling abroad. You can provide specific reasons and examples to support your idea. You should write at least 150 words.

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

It is known that text messages (手机短信) has both advantages and disadvantages. Some people think it is a blessing, while others regard it as a hell. In this section, you are asked to write an essay on text messaging. You can take either stand and provide specific reasons and examples to support your idea. You should write at least 150 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.