To the one British couple in seven that has problems conceiving, twins sound like a dream come true. So when would-be parents turn to in vitro fertilisation (IVF), they almost always opt to have as many embryos returned to the womb as they are legally allowed, even though they know that multiple births are especially risky. The result is that two-fifths of IVF babies are twins. And fertility treatment is now so common that it is distorting the nation's demographics: around a quarter of all twins have been conceived in a petri dish. Sharing a womb is not an ideal start to life. Twins who survive their much higher rates of miscarriage are often born early and small, which puts them at higher risk of cerebral palsy, low IQ and even death during their first year. Their expectant mothers are more prone to high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems. Around half of all twins are transferred to intensive-care units soon after birth. Now the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which licenses fertility clinics in England and Wales, has decided enough is enough. On April 4th it started a three-month consultation on changes in the way fertility treatment is carried out. The new rules, due to come into force in October, aim to halve the number of twin IVF pregnancies.p for discussion are various possible ways to do this. They include educating fertility doctors and their patients about the dangers of multiple births; imposing a limit—probably 10%—on the proportion of births which twins may account for at a clinic; and enforcing rules that set out exactly when clinics are allowed to return two embryos to the womb. The idea is to ensure that only one embryo is put back in women most likely to conceive, whereas two are allowed to those less likely. Some countries, notably Nordic ones, have already managed to cut the number of twin births resulting from fertility treatment. Provided a woman is reasonably young and healthy, and has not already had many failed IVF attempts, in each IVF cycle only the embryo that develops best is returned to her womb. Any spares are frozen, to be thawed later if the first embryo does not survive. These carefully-selected women are almost as likely to get pregnant this way as if two fresh embryos had been put back in the first place, and the risk of multiple pregnancy is almost eliminated. Persuading patients and clinicians of the merits of this approach depends on generous state funding for fertility treatment: it seems that patients are willing to accept a slightly lower chance of conceiving in any one cycle in return for more attempts. Moral pressure is also brought to bear. In Finland fertility doctors are taken on tours of neonatal wards, so they get to see the tiny, suffering scraps of humanity bora too early because they were crowded in their mothers' wombs. In Britain, though—unlike Finland and every other country that has successfully reduced IVF twin births— most infertile people must pay for their own treatment. Government guidelines, issued in 2004, say that all patients for whom IVF is "suitable" should have three treatment cycles paid for by the National Health Service (NHS), but rarely does this happen. Those patients who get public money are usually offered only one IVF cycle, and in some areas there is no public funding of IVF at all. This means that binding rules are likely to be needed to cut the number of IVF twins in Britain. Otherwise, with a single IVF cycle costing around ￡5,000, patients will be unwilling to accept even a tiny reduction in their chance of pregnancy, and so will ignore the risks in favour of returning as many embryos as they can. It took strong words from the HFEA in 2001 to start to bring down the numbers of triplets conceived by IVF, followed by the threat and then the reality of stricter rules. Now that women under 40 can have at most two embryos put back, the rate has halved since its peak in 1998. Some experts consulted by the HFEA held that new rules which might reduce the chance of conceiving should be introduced only if more fertility treatment were paid for by the NHS—something that the HFEA does not have power to arrange. Others said that the risk inherent in multiple births was too urgent to wait for the NHS to change its spending priorities. The irony is that delivering and caring for twins costs 16 times as much as for a singleton. The HFEA's advisors calculate that the money now spent on looking after desperately-ill premature IVF babies would be enough to pay for three treatment cycles for everyone who needs them. In the meantime, patients must weigh the risks of multiple pregnancy against the prospect of remaining childless. Even those most familiar with the sufferings of the infertile seem unsympathetic towards them. Only pregnancy is a more common reason than infertility for a woman to visit her doctor; yet a recent poll found that almost all family doctors thought patients who needed fertility treatment should pay for it themselves (not so those with varicose veins, for example). It is perhaps symptomatic of the low value placed on children and family life in general; another poll, last year, found that most Britons thought work, money and fun were all more important than having children.

Gloom had descended on the Lodge Lane Somali Women's Group. The landlord was selling up and the small Liverpool charity did not have enough money to buy him out. Eviction was two weeks away. Then in walked Mariam Gulaid, the group's treasurer, with a bulging carrier bag. Inside was ￡14,100 in cash, raised in a whirlwind door-to-door collection from local Somalis—"all women," she adds proudly. They are now on the way to buying the building.Little is known of Britain's Somalis. Even counting them is hard: the 2001 census came up with a total of 43,691, but surveys since then suggest a number nearer 100,000. A century-old trickle of economic migrants became a flood of refugees in the 1980s, increasing in the late 1990s as tens of thousands fled violence. Somalis are now Britain's largest refugee group. News tends to focus on the criminal exploits of their young men, who have acquired a fearsome reputation in some quarters. Reporters might learn more from the women: they are finding their feet, and helping friends and family find theirs. "The men always say that women change when they come to England," says Mrs. Gulaid, who estimates that at least half the women who come through her door are single parents, either through death or, increasingly, divorce. For women, life in Britain means support from the state and, through this, independence from their husbands, she says. Somali men seem to have a bumpier transition. Three-quarters have been to secondary school and one in ten has a degree, but language difficulties and unrecognised qualifications make unemployment the norm. Jill Rutter, a migration researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank, estimates that 65-70% are out of work. All-night sessions chewing qat also play their part. Down the road from Lodge Lane is the Merseyside Somali Community Association, a men's club. The brightly painted building is more a social venue than the action-oriented women's centre, which means that some men sneak into the women's group for advice. Osman Mohamed, its chairman, says hysteria about terrorism and suspicion directed at groups of black youths have given Somali men a reputation they do not deserve. It is hard to sort fact from fiction, as crime figures are broken down only by broad racial categories. Somalis have made the news for a few ruthless crimes, including the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky, a rookie police officer, in 2005. But police say these villains are unrepresentative. Paul Hurst, a police constable who has patrolled Toxteth's Somali neighbourhood for 21 years (and visited Somalia on a police bursary), reckons a hard core of about 30 Somali youths are active in car crime and low-level drug-dealing in the city. Nonetheless, crime in Somali "Tocky", as Toxteth is known, is lower than in neighbouring Picton and Wavertree, and light-touch policing has kept the peace. A repeat of the bloody Toxteth riots of 1981, when local Afro-Caribbeans clashed with police, is unthinkable, everyone agrees. The outlook for young Somalis is brightening. Lack of English among newly arrived refugees has prevented progress at school: a 1999 study of students in Camden, north London, found that just 3% got five good GCSE qualifications, compared with 48% of all students (and 21% of refugee children). But as the number of asylum seekers has plummeted, achievement has soared: in 2005 24% of Somalis in Camden got their five good passes. The fall in new arrivals has also damped down clan tensions, often blamed for causing fractures in the community. The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, a research body, counts at least 100 Somali organisations in London. Now, Liverpool's various bodies have overcome their differences to form an umbrella group, which is badgering the council for a joint community centre. Image remains crucial, especially to elders who fear their community is unfairly smeared by impostors. Economic migrants from all over east Africa (some of them ethnic Somalis) claim to be from Somalia to boost their chances of gaining asylum: a favourite pastime of British Somalis is spotting the fakes. Hussain Osman, on trial for trying to blow up a London station in July 2005, is considered one of Britain's highest-profile Somalia-born refugees. He may be nothing of the sort. Italian police say he is Hamdi Issac, and Ethiopian.

The welfare of children is a priority for the UN. In【B1】______ Europe and【B2】______ Asia the research is focussing on those kept in institutions like children's homes and【B3】______ because the care they get there is often completely【B4】______. Driving west from Tbilisi into a green【B5】______, turn【B6】______ and pass a ruined factory, a【B7】______ shell, there exists a Children's Hospital. As you walk down a long,【B8】______ corridor you can hear crying and【B9】______ and occasionally【B10】______. Kaspi is home to【B11】______ children. Most have been【B12】______ by their families and【B13】______ here. In Georgia disability carries a serious social stigma. Georgia's situation is【B14】______ by the economic collapse. Now half of all families live below the【B15】______ line. Each nurse earns【B16】______ dollars a month. Officially the children are meant to leave at【B17】______. But most have nowhere else to go so they stay put. A few【B18】______ organisations are trying to change this. But few families want the disabled children back. Just【B19】______ children have moved out of Kaspi in two years. So the emphasis now is on trying to prevent the children from being【B20】______.

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参与并取胜，这就是奥林匹克精神。它表现在弱者敢于向强者挑战，也表现在奋力拼搏争取更好的成绩。胜而又胜，优而更优，这种理想一直鼓舞着运动员奋力前进。他会尽其所能，永不松懈，永不罢休。有人说竞技者终究会是失败者，即使是最佳运动员也终将被更强者淘汰。成千上万个失败者才涌现一个胜利者，这个胜利者最终仍将被取代，被挤出光荣榜——这就是竞技运动的规律。然而运动员却从不为这种不可避免的失败结局而沮丧，仍然力争最佳发挥。实在到了自知技穷之时，他会愉快地退下来，让位给年轻的优胜者，并对自己在奥林匹克运动中为争取更好的成绩尽了一份力而心满意足。他会自豪地说他的青春没有虚度。

{{B}}SECTION 1 LISTENING TEST{{/B}}

Passage 1

BSectence TranslationDirections: In this part of the test, you will hear 5 sentences in English. You will hear the sentences ONLY ONCE. After you have heard each sentence, translate it into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET./B

金融危机爆发以来，国际组织和各国政府都在深刻反思，寻求世界经济和各国经济未来发展之路。对中国经济发展的成就，有喝彩的，也有怀疑的；对中国经济的未来，有看好的，也有唱衰的。对此，我们的头脑是清醒的，信心是坚定的。 我们坚持用改革的办法破解发展难题，不断完善社会主义市场经济体制。我们全面推进社会事业发展，覆盖城乡的社会保障体系初步形成，使“劳有所得、病有所医、老有所养、住有所居”的理想逐步变成现实。

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The destiny of wild places in the 21 century can be read in the numbers. The pressure to exploit the world's remaining wilderness for natural resources, food and human habitation will become overwhelming. But a new menace has emerged from the least likely place: the very people who care most passionately about empty places are hastening their death. Backcountry activities have become extremely trendy in the US, a fad that has been eagerly abetted by Madison Avenue. These days it's impossible to turn on a television or open a magazine without being attacked by a barrage of ads that use skillfully packaged images of wilderness activities to encourage consumerism. Unsettling though this development may be, it happens to come with a substantial upside; because wilderness is now esteemed as something precious and fashionable, wild places are more often being rescued from commercial exploitation. But if the wilderness fad has made it easier to protect wild country from development, it has made it harder to protect wild country from the exploding ranks of wilderness enthusiasts. Increasingly, places once considered enduringly back of beyond are now crowded with solitude seekers. As wilderness dwindles and disappears, more is at stake than the fate of endangered species. Other, less tangible things stand to be lost as well. Empty places have long served for a host of complicated yearnings and desires. As an antidote to the alienation and pervasive softness that trouble modern society, there is no substitute for a trip to an untravelled patch of backcountry, with its wonders, privation and physical trials.

杭州素以风景秀丽著称。大约七百年前，意大利最著名的旅行家马可.波罗曾称誉它是“世界上最美丽华贵之城”。境内西湖如明镜，千峰凝翠，洞壑幽深，风光绮丽。湖上有彩带似的苏堤、白堤飘落其上。三潭印月、湖心亭、阮公墩三个小岛鼎立湖中。岳庙、西泠印社、曲院风荷、平湖秋月、花港观鱼、柳浪闻莺等景点，均在湖之周围。环湖耸立的山峰，千姿百态。山上多岩洞，洞内景色优美，且多古代石刻；山间多泉，以虎跑、龙井、玉泉为佳；九溪十八涧则以“叮叮咚咚水，弯弯曲曲路”著称。此外，还有灵隐寺、六合塔、保俶塔、净慈寺、韬光、云栖等名胜古迹。

______

She's hard to miss. First of all, she's huge —12 ft. tall, 13 tons. She's also naked. And eight months pregnant. Her legs are shrunken and twisted. She doesn't have any arms. Carved out of a single block of Italian marble, she's so white she almost glows. But not everyone has quite got used to the pregnant, armless sculpture that has taken up residence in one of London's most trafficked public spaces, near monuments to the likes of Lord Nelson and King George IV. Sketching the statue for a class, Nisharee Pongpaew, 20, an art student from Brighton, registers her disapproval. "Around her are all these important people," says Pongpaew. "She's not a hero." But maybe heroes aren't what they used to be. Since its unveiling last month, Alison Lapper Pregnant, a likeness of the disabled 40-year-old British artist and photographer Alison Lapper, has stirred debate across London, not just over the meaning of art but also about the city's evolving identity. To some, the sculpture's prominent display owes more to political correctness than to aesthetic merit—"Purely empty, deeply bland and silly," says art critic Matthew Collings, author of This Is Modern Art. Others call it an uplifting tribute to womankind. But more interesting than the reactions it provokes are the ones it doesn't. If the sculpture has met with less than universal acclaim, it has also failed to spark much outrage or spray-paint protest. In that sense, Alison Lapper Pregnant may reveal a city and a society more comfortable with itself than it has been for a long time. Apart from a few recent temporary sculptures, the stone pedestal on the northwest corner of Trafalgar Square has stood empty since 1841. Londoners have long had their own ideas of what kind of statue should go on the plinth: Princess Diana! Margaret Thatcher! A giant pigeon! But lacking a permanent solution, a government-appointed committee last year picked two works that would each occupy the spot for up to 18 months. Marc Quinn, 41, creator of Alison Lapper Pregnant, says he wanted his work to reflect classical influences while addressing a contemporary social issue. "Disabled people are largely underrepresented in the history of art," says Quinn, "I wanted to celebrate a different kind of beauty and bodily diversity." It was hardly guaranteed that the sculpture would be deemed worthy of a place near Britain's greatest military heroes. But Alison Lapper Pregnant embodies the spirit of Trafalgar Square. For centuries, it has been the beating heart of the city, the place where Londoners gather to debate, celebrate and mourn. Only three months ago, people filled it to cheer the announcement that London will be host to the 2012 Olympics; eight days later, they flocked there again, to commemorate the July 7 terrorist bombings. Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery and chairman of the committee that chose the statue, says the judges wanted to honor the "demotic spirit" of the square as much as its history. Alison Lapper Pregnant fits right in: it's a monument to the strength of a human spirit, and it's impossible to ignore. Londoners seem to appreciate the rebellious nature of Quinn's sculpture. "It's good to push minorities to the front of art," says Jon Bryan, 48, an unemployed Londoner who lost his right arm in a bicycle accident. Twenty years ago, it might have been a different story. During the late 1980s and 1990s, a group of upstart conceptualists dubbed the Young British Artists sparked outrage by pushing the boundaries of taste and convention. (Quinn froze casts of his head filled with his own blood.) But as London became increasingly cosmopolitan, the public lost its capacity to be shocked. Says Nairne: "Now London has all these different points of view, and that produces discussion. It's part of the city's growing confidence." The novelty of Alison Lapper Pregnant is already wearing off. The most attention she gets these days is from the pigeons that perch on her lap. It says something about London's acceptance of change that they will probably like the next sculpture just as much, especially since it's called Hotel for the Birds.

单选题Questions 19-22

单选题 Questions 6-10 We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person's knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to device anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person's true ability and aptitude. As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn't matter that you weren't feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don't count: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, be enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of "drop- outs": young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students? A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress. The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge's decision yon have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner's. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person's true abilities. Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall: "I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire. "

单选题 {{B}}Questions 19—22{{/B}}

单选题Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk.

单选题Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk.