It is not often realized that women held a high place in southern European societies in the 10 th and 11 th centuries. As wife, the woman was protected by the setting up of a dowry (嫁妆) or decimum. Admittedly, the purpose of this was to protect her against the risk of desertion (遗弃)，but in reality its function in the social and family life of the time was much more important. The decimum was the wife’s right to receive a tenth of all her husband’s property. The wife had the right to withhold consent, in all transactions the husband would make, And more than just a right: the documents showed that she enjoyed a real power of decision, equal to that of her husband. In no case did the documents indicate any degree of difference in the legal status of husband and wife.

The wife shared in the management of her husband’s personal property, but the opposite was not always true. Women seemed perfectly prepared to defend their own inheritance(遗产，继承物)against husbands who tried to exceed their rights, and on occasion they showed a fine fighting spirit. A case in point is that of Maria, Vivas, a Catalan woman of Barcelona. Having agreed with her husband Miro to sell a field she had inherited, for the needs of the household, she insisted on compensation. None being offered, she succeeded in dragging her husband to the scribe to have a contract duly drawn up assigning her a piece of land from Miro’s personal inheritance. The unfortunate husband was obliged to agree, as the contract says, “for the sake of peace.” Either through the dowry or through being hot-tempered, the Catalan wife knew how to win herself, within the context of the family, a powerful economic position.

A decimum was      .

       A. the wife’s inheritance from her father    

       B. a gift of money to the new husband 

       C. a written contract            

       D. the wife’s right to receive one-tenth of her husband’s property

In the society described in the passage, the legal standing of the wife in marriage was      .

       A. higher than that of her husband       B. lower than that of her husband

       C. the same as that of her husband D. higher than that of a single woman

What compensation did Maria Vivas get for the field?

       A. Some of the land Miro had inherited.      B. A tenth of Miro’s land.

       C. Money for household expenses.       D. Money from Miro’s inheritance.

Which of the following is Not mentioned as an effect of the dowry system?

       A. The husband had to share the power of decision in marriage.

       B. The wife was protested from desertion.

       C. The wife gained a powerful economic position.

       D. The husband was given control over his wife’s property.

Doors and windows can’t keep them out; airport immigration officers can’t stop them and the Internet is a complete reproduction soil. They seem harmless in small doses, but large imports threaten Japan’s very uniqueness, say critics. “They are foreign words and they are infecting the Japanese language”.

“Sometimes I feel like I need a translator to understand my own language, ”says Yoko Fujimura with little anger, a 5-year-old Tokyo restaurant worker.“It’s becoming incomprehensible”.

It’s not only Japan who is on the defensive. Countries around th globe are wet through their hands over the rapid spread of American English. Coca?Cola,for example, is one of the most recognized terms on Earth.

It is made worse for Japan, however, by its unique writing system. The country writes all imported utterances(言论) except Chinese?in a different script called katakana (片假名). It is the only country to keep up such a difference. Katakana takes far more space to write than kanji?the core pictograph (象形文字) characters that the Japanese borrowed from China 1,500 years ago. Because it stands out, readers complain that sentences packed with foreign words start to look like extended strings of lights. As if that weren’t enough, katakana terms tend to get puzzling.

 For example, digital camera first appears as degitaru kamera. Then they became the more ear?pleasing digi kamey. But kamey is also the Japanese word for turtle. “It’s very disappointing not knowing what young people are talking about,” says humorously Minoru Shiratori, a 53?year?old bus driver. “Sometimes I can’t tell if they’re discussing cameras or turtles.”

In a bid to stop the flood of katakana, the government has formed a Foreign Words Committee to find suitable Japanese replacements. The committee is slightly different from French?style language police, which try to support a law that forbids advertising in English. Rather, committee members and traditionalists hope a non?stop campaign of persuasion, gentle criticism and leadership by example can turn the tide.

12.According to the author, the reason why the Japanese is infectd greatly by English is .      

A.that nothing can prevent it from entering into Japan

B.that English is the most recognized language in the world

C.that the government has not set up a special administration department to control this trend   before it becomes popular in Japan

D.not clearly mentioned in this passage

13.By saying “counties around the globe are wet through their hands over the rapid spread of American English,”the author infers that        .

A.even a restaurant worker in Japan may feel the English infection on Japanese

B.the flood of katakana has covered most of countries in the world

C.Coca?Cola is the most popuar on the earth and this product covers all the global market

D.many other countries are affected greatly by American English

14.According to the author, the last paragraph mainly deals with.      

A.how French-style language police has prevented the infection of English

B.how Japanese Foreign Words Committee prevents the infection of foreign words

C.the suitable Japanese replacements

D.why committee members and traditionalists begin to declare a war against the infection of foreign words

15.Which conclusion can be drawn based on the opinions from the Japanese people (in paragraph 2 and 4 of this passage)?

A.The elders strongly advocates replacing the foreign words than young people.

B.All the people dislike speaking the foreign words, such as “digi kamey”.

C.They are so old that it is necessary to give some language assistance by a specialist.

D.People’s work determines the language they speak.

THE BRONTE FAMILY
Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels (小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters’.
Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care of the remaining three girls and a boy.
Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.
As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher(出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her works. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.
Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.
Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.
【小题1】We know from the text that      .

THE BRONTE FAMILY

Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels (小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters’.

Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care of the remaining three girls and a boy.

Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.

As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher(出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her works. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.

1.We know from the text that      .

2.The underlined words “the other two” in the 5 th paragraph refer to      .

3. What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
The National Outline for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010 - 20) was released over the weekend. Here are some of the highlights:
Four – percent effort
The government says spending on education will be 4 percent of GDP by 2012. globally, average spending on education is about 4.5% of GDP. China spend 3,33% in 2008. according to Hu Angang, of Tsinghua University’s Center for China Studies, even if China reaches that goal, it will only rank about 100 th out of 188 countries.
Administrative rank
Administrative rankings for school leaders are to be phased out to tackle the bureaucracy (官僚机构) problem that limits educational development, according to Cheng Fangping, of the national Institute for Educational Research. Areas like teaching programs, scientific research, and technological development will be more independent.
Vocational Education
The system will be free of charge. According to Wu Yan, of Beijing Institute of Educational Sciences, this will be key to developing China’s production capacity and will improve poor people’s lives dramatically.
Entering college
Universities could eventually have the freedom to choose some of their own high school applicants. Normally, students are accepted based on the uniform national exam scores. Also, students who agree to go to a remote area could be admitted to university under special circumstances. The most likely change could come on the college entrance English test, which might be modeled on the IELTS or TOEFL. Students will be able to take it several times and pick their best score.
56．Which of the following is true in the future according to the passage?
A．Applicants could take the IELTS or TOEFL instead of the college entrance English test.
B．Colleges will be given the right to choose all of their own applicants.
C．Vocational education will be party free to make people’s lives better.
D．Applicants could sit for the college entrance English test more than once.
57．Which of the following words is closest in meaning to “uniform” in the last paragraph?
A．formal      B．official     C．same D．united
58．We can learn from the passage even though our country spends 4% of GDP on education in 2012, ________.
A．there will still be 188 countries ahead of China in this aspect
B．China will certainly overtake the global average spending on education
C．there might be nearly 100 countries ahead of China in this aspect
D．China will be the 100 th country to spend over the global average on education
59．From the third paragraph, we can infer that________.
A．school leaders will have more freedom to manage the school
B．schools will have more limits from the government
C．School administrative rankings are to be strengthened to solve the bureaucracy problem
D．schools and research centers will be fully independent from the government