California, once regarded as a leader in the United States for its public higher education system, ranks next to the last in the U．S．for its number of adults with at least a high school diploma, according to the report, titled “California at the Edge of a Cliff,” released by the California Faculty Association．

       Meanwhile, the state’s investment（投资） in public higher education has dropped over the past three decades, and now ranks 22nd in the country．That’s despite having the country’s largest public higher education system, the report said．

       “It's a collapse（衰退）,” said Thomas Mortenson, author of the report, who is an independent analyst living in Iowa and a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington,        D． C． “Ranking 49th out of 50 states is an indication that shows the quality of the state’s educational has become much worse in recent decades．” Mortenson said in the report．As of 2007, California ranked 14th in the United States in terms of college educated members of the workforce over 25 years of age, a drop from eighth place in 1981, the report showed．

       Mortenson said that California has never been the state of high status in education and economy while other states have made greater gains in building a college-educated workforce．

       The California Faculty Association is using the report’s findings to criticize Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed funding cuts for education．

       Struggling with a 14．8-billion-dollar state budget deficit（赤字）, Schwarzenegger has proposed a combination of sales tax increases, borrowing and major budget cuts, including cutting billions of dollars from the state’s education budget．

The passage is mainly about __________．

       A．California’s worse situation in higher education

       B．the dangerous situation in California

       C．California’s research on education and economy

       D．funding cuts for high education in California

From the passage we can infer that __________．

       A．investment in higher education has dropped in all states

       B．Thomas Mortenson works at California Faculty Association

       C．governor in California agreed to spend more money on education

       D．California had higher quality in higher education in the past

The reason why California has a lower rank in education is that________．

       A．the number of adults has decreased recently  

       B．the result of report has been published late

       C．the money to invest in education has been cut      

       D．the progress in other states has been made

According to the report’s findings, ________ is to blame for the drop in rank of education．

       A．Arnold Schwarzenegger  B．Thomas Mortenson

       C．the Pell Institute             D．California Faculty Association

—I regret to say that I failed to rank first in the terminal exam.

—Come on，nobody ________ win all the time.

A．should? B．must

C．shall? D．can

Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive(漂亮的) people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants (被告). But in the executive (行政的；管理的) circle, beauty can become

 a liability.

 While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman. Handsome male executives were considered as having more honesty than plain(平常的，不漂亮的) men; effort and ability were thought to lead to their success. Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones; their success was connected not with ability but with factors such as luck. All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight successes was connected more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of the attractive overnight successes.

Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman is considered to be more feminine and an attractive man more manly than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the "manly" qualities required.

This is true even in politics. "When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently," says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.

 The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the women who had ranked most attractive unchangeably received the fewest votes.

1.The word "liability" most probably means __________.        

A. disadvantage     B. advantage         C. misfortune       D. trouble

2.In traditionally female jobs, attractiveness ________.       

A. makes women look more honest and capable  B. strengthens the qualifies required

C. is of no importance to women              D. often enables women to succeed quickly

3.Bowman's experiment shows that when it comes to politics, attractiveness _______.      

A. turns out to be a disadvantage to men  

B. is more of a disadvantage than an advantage to women

C. affects men and women alike       

D. has as little effect on men as on women

4.It can be inferred from the passage that people's views on beauty are often _____.      

A. practical     B. supportive      C. old-fashioned    D. one-sided

5. The author writes this passage to ________________.

A. give advice to job-seekers who are attractive 

B. discuss the disadvantages of women being attractive

C. demand equal rights for women    

D. state the importance of appearance

VI. 短文改错

找出下面一段文章中的错处并改正。如该行缺一词，在文中缺词处标上“  ”  ，并在相应的横线上写上正确的词语；如该行多一词，在文中用斜线划掉多余的词，并在相应的横线上写上该词，用斜线划去；如该行错一词，在文中用横线标出，再在相应的横线上写上正确的词语。如该行无错，在相应的横线上打上“  ” 。

示例：

Betty wants to be  nurse and works with sick people        a       

who need her helps.                                 help     

Last summer Betty  had  broke her leg.                had     

The pain was very great and she couldn’t walk.                    

  The telephone rang and I picked out the receiver(话筒). “Hello,”   69.____________

I said.  “Hello,” said the voice. “Bill here, is Betty there?”         70.____________

“I’m sorry,” I said, “You have got the wrong number.”             71.____________

A few seconds late, the telephone rang again. Just                 72.____________

as I expected he was Bill, “You have made a mistake again.”        73.____________

I explained. The telephone rang a third time. This made I           74.____________

angry. I speak in a big voice, “Hello, Bill, Betty here.”             75._____________

For a moment there was a dead silent. Then someone said,         76._____________

“What’s the wrong with you, Tom?” It was my mother.            77._____________

I could do anything but say sorry to my mother.                  78_____________

第二卷 (25分)

单词拼写 10%

71. I don’t go along with her __________ (宗教的) beliefs.

72. Our school is wildly __________ (赞赏；仰慕) for its excellent teaching.

73. We __________ (道歉) for the late departure of this flight.

74. What nutrients are necessary for a __________ (均衡的) diet?

75. Steel is produced by __________ (使---结合/混合) iron with carbon.

76. You should try to keep the shop’s regular __________(顾客) happy.

77. They are selling everything at a ___________ (折扣).

78. They set out on a daring space ___________(冒险经历)

79. It wasn’t a good thing; on the ___________ (正相反) it was a huge mistake.

80. __________(甜点) is sweet food served at the end of a meal.

VI. 改   错 5%

81. We all should keep our words no matter how difficult it may be.

82. Some people might win awards for their farm produce, as the biggest watermelon or the most handsome rooster.

83. The country, covering with cherry tree flowers, looks as though it is covered with pink snow.

84. Judged by his appearance, he can’t be from the United States.

85. Sir, I mustn’t have driven so fast, for the speed limit of my car is 100kmph.