______ “ Double 11”, which is quickly turning into China’s biggest grassroots festival, somewhat overlaps with Valentine’s Day and provides another occasion for lovers to buy each other gifts, most spending on that day doesn’t involve a change of single status.

A. Ever since B. In case

C. Even though D. As though

Chinese company iQiyi has grown into one of the country’s biggest video websites. Popular TV series like The Journey of Flower and The lost Tomb broadcast on the website have ________huge audiences, adolescents in particular .

A. taken to B. caught on C. applied to D. appealed to

The journalists from many countries couldn’t be ___________ about when China would have joint research with the United States on nuclear power projects to increase China’s industrial capacity with overseas advanced energy technologies, so they asked Premier Li Keqiang at the press conference.

A.bound B. arbitrary

C. ambiguous D. positive

According to the central bank, the 2015 edition bills will circulate _______ previous editions and will have the same face value.

A. in terms of B. in parallel with

C. in defence of D. in case of

— Do you think I really _____ the bad handwriting in your composition at yesterday’s meeting?

—Sure, Why _____ you always pick holes in everything I write?

A. wouldn’t have mentioned; can

B. mustn’t mention; should

C. shouldn’t have mentioned; must

D. couldn’t mention; would

Masterclasses---Researching your novel

When it comes to fiction, research skills are as important as writing skills. Whatever your theme or setting, research skills are an invaluable resource for any writer.

On this course, novelist Alex Preston will show you how to use various research sources to write convincing , powerful stories. You’ll explore online horizons far beyond Wikipedia, and access vast resources of the un-sohuable.

Course description

Through a mix of talks and practical exercises, you’ll learn how to weave

professional-standard research into the fiction writing process to improve all aspects of your work.

Topics include

Resources for research ---using the Internet , libraries and media to enrich your story

Backgrounds---how to use your research to make your story interesting

Shortcuts ---how to research on a tight budget

Writing the past and the present --- how to use detail to bring the world of your story to life

Theories of research--- from Laurent Binet to Hilary Mantel, looking at how the masters work

Practical exercises--- a series of writing exercises designed to inspire and instruct

This course is for you if …

You are an experienced writer currently writing or planning a novel which requires more research than you’ve previously undertaken

You are a new fiction writer struggling with building a convincing world.

You are currently having plotting or structural problems with a novel

Tutor profile

Alex Preston is a prize-winning novelist and journalist. He appears regularly on BBC television and radio and writes for The Observer and GQ Magazine

Details

Date: 21 December 2015

Times: 10 am-5 pm. Check-in begins 30 minutes before the start time.

Location: The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU

Price:

Early bird special￡199 ( limited in number)

Regular price ￡229

( all prices include VAT, booking fee, lunch and refreshments)

Event capacity: 16

Tickets may be paid back if you contact us at least 7 days before the course start date.

Book now and join our masterclasses ASAP!

1.If you want to make your story real and vivid, you should focus on “_______”

A. Backgrounds

B. Practical exercises

C. Resources for research

D. Writing the past and the present

2.The course is targeted at those who _________

A. are trying their best to work out ideal characters in a story

B. are popular writers with several works completed

C. write for famous magazines regularly

D. lack enough persuasive writing skills

3.Which of the following is Not true according to “Details” ?

A. Only less than twenty people can be admitted into the course.

B. The favourable price includes lunch and desserts.

C. Those who book in advance can get a 15% discount

D. The whole course lasts seven hours.

For some years the big drugmakers have been worrying about an approaching "patent cliff"—a fall in sales as the patents on their most popular pills expire or are struck down by legal challenges, with few new potential blockbusters to take their place. This week the patent on the best-selling drug in history expired—Lipitor, an anti-cholesterol pill which earned Pfizer nearly $11 billion in revenues last year.In all, pill like Lipitor with a combined $170 billion in annual sales will go off-patent by the end of 2015.

What is supposed to happen now is that lots of copycat firms rush in with "generic" (ie, chemically identical) versions of Lipitor at perhaps one-fifth of its price.Patients and health-care payers should reap the benefit.Pfizer's revenues should suffer. The same story will be repeated many times, as other best-selling drugs march over the patent cliff

But generics makers may face delays getting their cheaper versions to market.Ranbaxy, a Japanese-owned drugmaker, struggled to get regulators' approval for its generic version of Lipitor, and only won it on the day the patent expired.More importantly, research-based drug firms are using a variety of tactics to make the patent cliff slope more gently. Jon Leibowitz, chairman of America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is concerned by drugmakers filing additional patents on their products to put off the day when their protection expires.

Another tactic(策略) is "pay-for-delay", in which a drugmaker facing a legal challenge to its patent pays its would-be competitor to put off introducing its cheaper copy. In the year to October the FTC identified what it believes to be 28 such settlements. American and European regulators are looking into these deals. However, legal challenges against them have been delayed, and a bill to ban them is stuck in Congress.

To encourage generics makers to challenge patents on drugs, and introduce cheaper copies,

an American law passed in 1984 says that the first one to do so will get a 180-day exclusivity period,in which no other generics maker can sell versions of the drug in question, as Ranbaxy supposedly won with Lipitor.

However, Pfizer is exploiting a loophole(空子) in the 1984 law, which lets it appoint a second, authorised copycat—in this case, Watson, another American firm.According to BernsteinResearch, under the deal between the two drugmakers Pfizer will receive about 70% of Watson's revenues from its approved copy of Lipitor.More unusual, Pfizer has cut the price of its original version, and will keep marketing it vigorously. So Ranbaxy faces not one, but two competitors.

All this may raise Pfizer's sales by nearly $500m in the last half of 2015 compared with what they would otherwise have been, says Tim Anderson of BernsteinResearch, with revenues then falling after the 180 days are over. Others fear that Pfizer's tactics , if copied, will make the 180-day exclusivity period worth far less, and thus discourage generic firms from challenging patents in the first place.

1.The underlined word “blockbusters” in Paragraph 1 refers to “_______’

A. pills that sell very well

B. new patents to appear

C. drugmakers to compete with Pfizer

D. challenges which Pfizer has to face

2.What is the tactic mentioned in Paragraph 4?

A. Legal challenges against expired patents have been paid for putting off the cheaper copy.

B. Bills to prohibit generic makers have been stuck in Congress.

C. Drugmakers try to spend money delaying filing additional patents on popular pills

D. Patent-holders give possible competitors money to prevent more losses.

3.Pfizer exploit a loophole in the 1984 law mainly by ________.

A.marketing Lipitor more actively

B. making the price of Lipitor go up

C. cooperating with Watson to beat Ranbaxy

D. encouraging Watson to produce cheaper copies

4. How many tactics are adopted by patent-holders in the passage?

A. Two B. Three C. Four D. Five

5.Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A. Drugmakers’ struggle

B. Generic makers’ dilemma

C. Laws concerning patent protection

D. Popular pills of Pfizer

When the swim season began, my 11-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and I cut a deal. She would go to practice three times a week, and I wouldn’t make her compete in swim meets.

Elizabeth does not like swim meets. She gets horribly nervous because she is afraid that she will do something wrong and let everyone down. She started to talk about quitting swimming, which broke my heart because she loves swimming. So I came up with the deal.

Recently, Elizabeth’s team announced a T-shirt relay, which works like this: One person from each relay team puts on a T-shirt and a pair of socks and swims 50 meters. She takes off the clothes and put them on the next person, who then swims 50 meters. This continues until everyone on the team has completed a lap.

It wasn’t exactly a meet, because it would involve only team members. But Elizabeth thought it was. I told Elizabeth I really wanted her to go. She fought back angrily but finally agreed.

When the day for the T-shirt relay arrived, Elizabeth was nervous. She was chosen to swim the anchor leg (最后一棒).By the last leg, Elizabeth’s team had built up a narrow lead. Then it was Elizabeth’s turn to swim.

Approaching the halfway mark, she was still in the lead. Then somebody noticed that one of Elizabeth’s socks had fallen off and was floating in the pool. “She has to get that sock on before the end of the race,” a swimming official told Elizabeth’s team, “or you will be disqualified.”

Everybody on her team started shouting, “Elizabeth! Get the sock!” But she couldn’t hear them. Meanwhile, a girl in lane two was gaining on Elizabeth. Just then, a girl on my daughter’s team jumped in the pool, grabbed the sock, swam after Elizabeth and put the sock on Elizabeth.

With the sock finally on, Elizabeth swam her heart out for the last 15 meters and won! There was much celebration. And, for a few minutes, Elizabeth was the hero.

On the ride home, she relived her moment of glory again and again. She told me that if the T-shirt relay was an Olympic event, her team would win the gold medal, I told her that in my professional opinion, she was absolutely right.

1.What do we know about the T-shirt relay?

A. Elizabeth was eager to attend it.

B. Elizabeth made full preparations for it.

C. Elizabeth thought she was sure to fail the relay.

D. Elizabeth agreed to attend it after a lot of persuasion.

2.What happened to Elizabeth when she was swimming the anchor leg?

A. The girl on the other team swam faster than her.

B. She was disqualified for breaking the rule.

C. She was too nervous to swim.

D. One of her socks fell off.

3.We can infer from the last paragraph that Elizabeth_____.

A. believed she was the best of her team.

B. hoped to take part in the Olympics.

C. overcame her fear of swim meets.

D. was grateful for the girl’s help.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A. Born to be a swimmer B. Swimming in socks

C. The swim season D. Never give up!

完形填空,阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Lyse Doucet lives a happy life in Chicago. But recently there is some difficulty for her and her family. She and her husband have each other’s parents and young daughter and for that they are . But she and her husband are both currently . And their car is in great need of . And then there is the matter of their second child, who is soon. So things are a little tense for the Doucet family these days.

When Lyse and her daughter were walking through a store lot recently, Lyse picked up an envelop from the ground that $4,000 in cash. There were a _of different explanations that could be considered. Was this a kind of good ? Could it be an attempt by the universe to balance everything? Could it be simply a gift from God? Lyse didn’t know. The only thing she knew was that the cash in that envelope to someone else. Oh, and one other thing she knew was that her young daughter was . “My kid was standing right there I found it,” Lyse told WLS-TV in Chicago. “So basically I wanted to teach my daughter how to be . And for me that was enough.”

Never mind the bills that were , or the car that needed to be fixed, or the baby that would come soon. When she the money over to the police she was told that there was actually nothing illegal if she it.

The police were able to return the money to the person who it-- an old woman. And one can imagine the joy and she felt when the police handed the lost envelop back to her. “She came to my house and she was almost in tears, me,” Lyse said. “She gave me a hug and an envelope with a small in it. But what was in it wasn’t . What mattered was the opportunity to teach my daughter honesty.”

1.A. restricted B. upset C. grateful D. sensitive

2.A. appreciated B. unemployed C. disappointed D. removed

3.A. cash B. protection C. sale D. repair

4.A. sick B. due C. desperate D. dull

5.A. gathering B. begging C. cleaning D. parking

6.A. contained B. involved C. charged D. paid

7.A. handful B. deal C. number D. flood

8.A. expense B. luck C. hope D. prize

9.A. belonged B. reacted C. pointed D. responded

10.A. urging B. affecting C. laughing D. watching

11.A. before B. when C. because D. though

12.A. ripe B. loyal C. honest D. humorous

13.A. passing by B. giving away C. showing off D. piling up

14.A. turned B. watched C. got D. collected

15.A. checked B. made C. kept D. promoted

16.A. sent B. lost C. disliked D. generated

17.A. relief B. anxiety C. tension D. respect

18.A. comforting B. congratulatingC. thanking D. offending

19.A. option B. present C. envelope D. amount

20.A. important B. serious C. sufficient D. efficient

假设你是李华，一名高三学生，在网络上看到一所国外大学的招生信息 (admission information), 该大学对中国学生开设30多个专业，你对此非常感兴趣,打算用英语撰写一份个人申请，主要内容包括：

1. 想申请的专业；

2. 个人优势；

3. 进入大学后的设想。

注意：1. 词数：100左右；

2. 书信格式已给出；

3. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear Sir or Madam,

Yours Sincerely,

Li Hua