C
Andreea,18,from Romania, sent a photograph of the view from her window and included a brief apology, “Sorry, this picture is plain and boring. No one would like it.”
At home in New Jersey, US, Coreen Burke,16, clicked on the same image on the internet. She saw a village with its rooftops and walls painted in reds and yellows, a distant chimney(烟囱) giving off smoke. “Isn’t this amazingly different from my country?” She thought to herself.
Burke, a teenager with a skill for computers, saw beauty in that photo. She posted it to her blog, Outside My Window, which features a daily snapshot(快照) of someone’s window view around the world.
The concept is simple: We can all relate to the act of staring through a piece of glass, onto the scene on the other side. “Maybe if we understood the way people from all over the world live,” she explained, “we would all get along better than we have been lately.”
With a click of a mouse, you can see Frederic’s window in the south of France, looking out on sailboats anchored (抛锚) in a peaceful harbor. Or Virginia’s view in Canada, a winter scene with trees laced in white.
Like most high school students, Burke has traveled the world. But she says someday she hopes to collect stamps in her passport, starting with Greece and India. Her recent break was devoted to launching the site with a blogger account and recruiting(招募) contributors from deviant ART, an online art community. She posted the first window view from Switzerland, a sunset photographed by an 18-year-old. Then others came flowing in by email, up to seven a day, from as far as Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Contributors are marked on maps pinned on her bedroom wall: a blue dot indicates their country and a pink dot shows their city, if they provide it. The most responses have come from Europe – Estonia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden, to name a few. She is crossing her fingers, thinking that she’ll receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica, which are unrepresented so far.
While she’s become a cyber crusader(网络革新者) for appreciating the beauty outside our own windows, get this: She has no windows in her bedroom. She has a nice skylight（天窗）, though.
51. What does Burke think of the picture she received from Andreea?
A. Boring      B. Charming    C. Strange    D. Plain
52. Outside My Window is a blog intended to show_______.
A. the view from Burke’s window
B. pictures of rural New Jersey
C. photos of window views taken by people all over the world
D. beautiful scenes of famous places of interest
53. We can conclude from the article that Burke _______.
A. believes we should reach out to people of different cultures
B. has traveled around the world and taken many pictures
C. is a member of an online art community
D. has made a lot of money by selling beautiful pictures
54. Which of the following is not true?
A. Burke is likely to receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica.
B. Burke is a junior middle school student.
C. Burke has photos from many countries in the world, including Kazakhstan.
D. Burke wants a photo of window view from Africa or Antarctica.
55．What is the best title of this passage?
A. World Windows
B. Beautiful Pictures
C. Pictures on the Internet
D. Windows in Bedrooms

A school in Nanjing plans to order Korean-style school uniforms (校服) for students, but parents were against the move, believing that the new uniforms looked too good and would encourage early romances among the students.
Parents: “My daughter was so excited about the Korean-style uniform, saying it’s her dream to wear a miniskirt to school every day,” a mom said. “My daughter also called her classmates to talk about how handsome the boys looked in the uniforms! If the students wear such beautiful uniforms, how can they concentrate on their studies?”
School: We had to stop the plan because many parents were strongly against it. Some parents thought it was just a way for the school to make money, and others thought the new uniforms would take students’ attention away from their studies.
Students: The students were very disappointed about the school’s final decision. They thought the sportswear uniforms made them look dull. They said the Korean uniforms had many advantages such as raising interest in class and lifting confidence.
As for concerns about romance, the students believe that love is love and has no relationship to the uniforms.
The Department of Education: The schools can choose their own styles. Either sportswear or other uniforms are OK. Currently, most middle and elementary schools in Nanjing have sportswear uniforms.
Expert: Fashionable school uniforms can increase students’ interest in learning.
Parents don’t need to worry too much about early romances. Today’s primary and middle school students have strong personalities and their appreciation of beauty is rapidly forming. A fashionable uniform can develop their sense of belonging to the school and reduce their resistance(反抗) to the school’s management.
But we don’t have to follow Korean or Japanese styles. We should design our own Chinese style uniforms.
1．Students think the new uniforms will________.
    A. make them have good taste in fashion        B. make them feel confident
    C. make them feel proud of their school        D. reduce their fear of teachers
3．The opinion of the expert is to________.
   A. forbid the students to wear fashionable uniforms
B. encourage the students to wear sportswear uniforms
C. design uniforms in a Chinese style
D. wear new uniforms in a foreign style
3．We can infer from the passage that_________.
A. school uniforms are mostly blue or black
B. few students are willing to wear school uniforms
    C. school uniforms are a waste of money
D. schools are encouraged to choose their own uniforms

Part B: Vocabulary 9%

F. negative       G. failures         H. defined          I. mark          J. reliable  

We might be surprised 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 is really extraordinary that after all years, educationists have still failed to devise something more 41 than examinations. For all the 42 that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact 43. 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.

As anxiety-makers, examinations are 44 to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the 45 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 46: the exam goes on. No one can bring out the 47 in him when he is in terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of fierce competition where success and failure are clearly 48 and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of “dropouts”: young people who are written off as 49 before they have started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?

For a 400-year-old art form, opera had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as ＄ 145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to associate opera with common people. That means no formal suits, old-style theatre or bank breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such usual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened version of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel ￡Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75^th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.

72. Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

A.　 Opera is famous for is history.　　　　　　　

B Opera is only for rich people.

C. Opera companies are trying to keep operas alive.

D. Young people are not interested in operas.

73．The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means ________.

A. breaking up the old rules　　　　　 B. changing the dresses

C. making the audience at ease　　　　 D. advertising themselves

74. The San Francisco Opera employs young students in order to ________.

A. attract young people　　　　　　　　 B. reduce the cost

C. celebrate its 75^th anniversary　　　　　 D. make Cinderella popular

75．What can you infer from the passage?

A.　 The tickets for opera are very expensive at present.

B.　 Opera is performed in a language difficult to understand.

C.　 Opera is not so popular an art form today.

D.　 Students enjoy performing operas very much.

                              C

    Throughout the world, clothing has many uses. It is used to provide protection from the elements. It is also worn to prevent others from seeing specific parts of one's body. However, the parts of the body that must be covered vary widely throughout the world. Some clothing is worn to

provide supernatural protection. Wearing a lucky shirt to take an exam is calling for supernatural assistance.

    People in all cultures use clothing and other forms of bodily decoration to communicate status,intentions and other messages. In North America, we dress differently for business and various leisure activities. North American women usually are much more knowledgeable of and concerned

With little difference in messages communicated by clothes than men. At times, this leads to silly mistakes of interpretation（解释） of female intentions on the part of men. Of course. clothing styles also are intended to communicate messages to members of the same gender（性别）．

    Long before we are near enouth to talk to someone, their appearance tells their gender, age,economic class. and often even intentions. We begin to recognize the important cultural clues at an early age. The vocabulary of dress that we learn includes not only items of clothing but also

hairstyles, jewelry, and other body decoration. In most cultures, however, the same style of dress communicates different messages depending on the age, gender. and physical appearance of the individual wearing it.

   Putting on certain types of clothing can change your behavior and the behavior of others towards you. This can be the case with a doctor's white lab coat, or an army uniform. Most uniforms are clearly symbolic so that they can rapidly and unmistakably communicate status. For instance. the

strange hairstyle and clothing of the English "punks" are essential aspects of their uniforms.

   There are many forms of body decoration other than clothes that are used around the world to send messages. These include body and hair paint, and even body deformation. When doctors put braces on teeth, they are actually doing the same thing - deforming or reforming a part of the body

to make it more attractive.

49. What is the passage mainly about?

    A. Clothing and Culture          B. Communication through Clothing

    C. Clothing and Social Behavior  D. Ways of Sending Messages

50. In North America men sometimes misunderstand women's intention because

    A. men are more careless than women

    B. women spend more time on their clothes

    C. men and women have different views on clothing styles

    D. men care less about the different messages communicated by clothes

51. From the passage. it can be inferred that__________

    A. messages communicated by clothes are the same in different cultures

    B. words of dress are not enough to communicate different messages

    C. dress is better than language in communicating messages

    D. clothing plays an important role in social activities

52. What does the underlined word "essential" mean in this passage?

     A. beautiful       B. necessary      C. unimportant     D. Common