.

Tell the truth or just lie?

You’re busy filling out the application form for a position you really need; let’s assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn’t it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University?

More and more people are turning to final trick like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university. Registrars at most well known colleges say they deal with deceitful like these at the rate of about one per week.

Personnel officers do check up degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them “impostors(骗子)”；Another refers to them as “special cases” one well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by ”no such people.”

To avoid total lies, some job-seekers claim that they “attended” or “were associated with” a college or university. After carefully checking, a personal officer may discover that “attending” means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that “being associated with” a college means that the job seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claim says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century-that’s when they began keeping records, anyhow.

If you don’t want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony(假的) diploma. One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from “Smoot State University.” The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the “University of Purdue.” As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.

72.The main idea of this passage is that______.

A. employers are checking more closely on applicants now

B. lying about college degrees has become a widespread problem

C. college degrees can now be purchased easily

D. employers are no longer interested in college degrees

73.According to the passage, “special cases” refers to cases where______.

A. students attend a school only part-time

B. students never attended a school they listed on their application

C. students buy false degrees from commercial firms

D. students attended a famous school

74.We can infer from the passage that______.

A. performance is a better judge of ability than a college degree

B. experience is the best teacher

C. past work histories influence personnel officers more than degrees do

D. a degree from a famous school enables an applicant to gain advantage over others in job competition

75.This passage implies that______.

A. buying a false degree is not normal

B. personnel officers only consider applicants from famous schools

C. most people lie on applications because they were dismissed from school

D. society should be greatly responsible for lying on applications

There is a common belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever considered spelling unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, quite different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (优先) it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to en­courage a child to express himself freely in writing without holding him back with spelling.
If spelling becomes the only point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will write only words within his spelling range (范围). That’s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.
I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience:“This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling mistakes.” It may have been a sharp criticism(批评) of the pupils technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad thing for the teacher who had omitted (略过) to read the composition, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw atten­tion to the mistakes, but if his priority had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more hope to seek improve­ment.
【小题1】The expression “play safe” probably means ____.

 Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, the nail is a mean rumor (谣言) about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.

There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying (欺悔). When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular. It’s the same thing as teasing, only it’s done behind someone’s back instead of to his or her face.

When you spread a rumor about someone, you’re sending a signal that the person is outside of the group, and somehow less worthy of friendship than others. You’re making fun of that person or pointing out negative things about him or her. This can let others think that it’s okay to make the person feel bad, and make him or her an outsider.

We need to be able to trust our friends, and gossip and rumors can break this trust. If you tell a personal secret to a friend, and he turns around and tells it to someone else, you might feel like you will get burned if you ever get close to him again.

Letting a rumor influence your behavior is like letting someone else make a big decision for you. Let’s say you hear that the teacher plans to call a Snow Day tomorrow because a blizzard (暴风雪) is coming. Expecting a day off, you don’t do your homework. The next morning, the blizzard turns out to be nothing more than a drizzle（毛毛雨）, and school isn’t off after all. You get zeroes on your work.

1.The purpose of the first paragraph is to        .

A. help readers know what a rumor is        B. attract readers to read the following paragraphs

C. emphasize the damaging effects of rumors   D. explain how a rumor spreads

2.To tell a rumor and a tease apart, you depend on        .

A. whether it is done behind someone            B. whether it is painful or not

C. whether it is a kind if bullying                 D. whether it is spread fast

3. If a rumor is spread about someone, others may        .

A. point out his or her advantages B. keep away from him or her

C. not feel he or she is an outsider  D. be hurt if getting close to him or her again

4.From the last paragraph, we can infer that        .

A. it is hard to keep rumors a secret             B. rumors can destroy your interest in learning

C. believing rumors can lead to bad choices    D. rumors can control your whole life

5. The purpose of this passage is to         .

A. advise on how to deal with rumors  B. teach us how to judge a rumor

C. find out why rumors spread fast     D. explain why rumors hurt

III. Reading Comprehension

Section A

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D.  Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

The first attempt of even the most talented artists, musicians, and writers is seldom a masterpiece, If you consider your drafts as dress rehearsals (彩排), or tryouts, revising will seem a natural part of the writing ___50___.

What is the purpose of the dress rehearsals and the out-of-town previews that many Broadway shows go through? The answer is adding, deleting, replacing, reordering, ___51___ revising. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera underwent such a process.

When Lloyd Webber began writing in 1984, he had in mind a funny, exciting production. However, when Phantom opened in London in 1986, the audience saw a moving psychological love story set to music. The musical had. ___52___ several revisions due, in part, to problems with costuming and makeup (戏服和化妆). For instance, Lloyd Webber ___53___ some of the music because the Phantom's makeup prevented the actor from singing certain sounds.

When you revise, you change aspects of your work in ___54___ to your evolving purpose, or to include ___55___ ideas or newly discovered information.

Revision is not just an afterthought that gets only as much time as you have at the end of an assignment. ___56___, it is a major stage of the writing process, and writers revise every step of the way. Even your decision to ___57___. topics while prewriting is a type of revising. However. don't make the mistake of skipping the revision stage that follows ___58___. Always make time to become your own ___59___and view your dress rehearsal, so to speak. Reviewing your work in this way can give you ___60___ new ideas.

Revising involves ___61___ the effectiveness and appropriateness of all aspects of your writing, making your purpose more clearly, and refocusing or developing the facts and ideas you present. When you revise, ask yourself the following questions, keeping in mind the audience for whom you are writing: Is my main idea or purpose ___62___ throughout my draft? Do I ever lose sight of my purpose? Have I given my readers all of the ___63___ that is, facts, opinions, inferences --- that they need in order to understand my main idea? Finally, have I included too many ___64___ details that may confuse readers?

50. A. technique       B. style           C. process         D. career

51. A. in particular     B. as a result       C. for example     D. in other words

52. A. undergone       B. skipped        C. rejected         D. replaced

53. A. rewrote         B. released        C. recorded         D. reserved

54. A. addition         B. response       C. opposition        D. contrast

55. A. fixed           B. ambitious      C. familiar           D. fresh

56. A. However        B. Moreover      C. Instead           D. Therefore

57. A. discuss          B. switch         C. exhaust          D. cover

58. A. drafting         B. rearranging      C. performing      D. training

59. A. director         B. master          C. audience        D. visitor

60. A. personal         B. valuable        C. basic           D. delicate

61. A. mixing          B. weakening       C. maintaining     D. assessing

62. A. amazing         B. bright           C. unique         D. clear

63. A. angles          B. evidence         C. information     D. hints

64. A. unnecessary     B. uninteresting      C. concrete        D. final

二、完形填空（共20小题；每小题1. 5分，满分30分）

Years ago, if a teenager had some problems in her life, she might go home and write in her diary. Now, a teenager with   16   problems might go onto the Internet and write about his problems in a blog. In many ways a diary and a blog are very   17  . So, what makes blogging different from writing in   18   diary?

The biggest difference is that blogging is much more   19   than a diary. Usually, a teenager treats his diary like a book full of   20   that she does not want to   21 

It’s interesting that someone who writes in a blog   22   a diary will probably write nearly the same information.

I have a little sister, and sometimes I go online to read her   23   . She writes about things like waking up early for swimming practice and not studying enough for her chemistry test.  24  I was her age, I wrote about the same things, but   25   in my diary. Then, after I had finished writing, I would hide my diary in a secret place because I was   26   that my sister might read it!

The biggest   27   with blogging is that anyone can read what you write. If I was angry with a friend during high school and wrote something   28   about her in my diary, she would never know!   29, if my sister ever wrote something bad about a friend, that friend   30  read her blog and get a “cry”.

There are also   31   to blogging, of course. If I felt sad one day and wrote in my diary: “Nobody cares about me.”   32   would know about it. However, if my sister wrote the same sentence in her blog, her best friends would   33   respond（回应）and tell her how much they  _34   her. Blogs help people   35   in contact with their friends and know what the people around them are doing.

16. A. the same      B. troublesome       C. difficult      D. daily

17. A. familiar          B. special              C. similar            D. different

18. A. a personal    B. an ordinary     C. a common   D. a traditional

19. A. attractive     B. public         C. convenient   D. quick

20. A. thoughts      B. puzzles          C. mysteries     D. secrets

21. A. tell         B. share          C. publish        D. solve

22. A. instead of     B. as well as      C. in favor of   D. in spite of

23. A. blog        B. diary          C. report       D. web

24. A. Although     B. Since         C. When       D. Because

25. A. only        B. already          C. still          D. never

26. A. angry      B. concerned      C. glad         D. worried

27. A. problem          B. doubt         C. trouble            D. mistake

28. A. boring     B. wrong         C. unpleasant   D. funny

29. A. Beside     B. However       C. Therefore    D. Then

30. A,. should     B. will           C. must        D. might

31. A. reasons     B. disadvantages     C. shortcomings D. advantages

32. A. everyone      B. no one              C. anyone        D. someone

33. A. happily     B. especially      C. quickly       D. immediately

34. A. like         B. miss           C. need        D. help

35. A. lose         B. stay           C. get           D. find