1.Voluntary learning in organized courses by mature men and women is called adult education. Such education is offered to make people able to enlarge and interpret their experience as adults. Adults may want to study something which they missed in earlier schooling, get new skills or job training, find out about new technological developments, seek better self—understanding, or develop new talents and skills.

2.This kind of education may be in the form of self-study with proper guidance through the use of libraries, correspondence courses, or broadcasting. It may also be acquired collectively in schools and colleges, study groups, workshops, clubs, and professional associations.

3.Modern adult education for large numbers of people started in the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Great economic and social changes were taking place: people were moving from rural areas to cities; new types of work were being created in an expanding factory system. These and other factors produced a need for further education and re-education of adults.

4.The earliest programs of organized adult education arose in Great Britain in the 1790s, with the founding of an adult school in Nottingham and a mechanics’ institute in Glasgow. The earliest adult education institution in the United States was founded by Benjamin Franklin and some friends in Philadelphia in 1727.

5.People recognize that continued learning is necessary for most forms of employment today. For example, parts of the adult population in many countries find it necessary to take part in retraining programs at work or even to learn completely new jobs. Adult education programs are springing up constantly to meet these and other needs.

The TV play series The Revolution of 1911, broadcast on CCTV1 lately, is ________ the 100th anniversary of The Revolution of 1911.

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.

Nothing can better illustrate the failure of education in this country than the contrast between millions of college graduates finding it hard to get a proper job every year and the lack of workers in the more industrialized regions.

According to news from Dongguan (东莞), one of the __50__ manufacturing centers in the Pearl River Delta (珠江三角洲) region in South China, “over 90 percent” factories have said they are finding __51__ difficult to employ people from the second half of 2009, when the __52__ began picking up and overseas orders restarted pouring in. Running to full capacity seems a dream that the factories had__53__. 

An awkward reality is that only few, __54__, of the new college graduates could really fill the vacancies because the trainings they have received are entirely __55__ from the demands of the jobs. Nor will Chinese cities have enough workforce if they pursue a development model other than export-based manufacturing.

The __56__ for that is simple: The knowledge about management graduates gather is totally out of step with reality, __57__ of them can hardly express themselves in English or compose an email message properly, and __58__ handle even paper work in a law service with the legal knowledge they have.

I __59__ some college teachers, whom I went to college with, that the amount of time an average college student spends on studies today is less than half of what we __60__ in the late 1970s when proper college education was recovered after the “cultural revolution” (1966-76).

“They (the administrations) have enrolled so many students just to __61__ from their parents (tuition and other charges)”, one of the teachers said embarrassedly. “It's a nationwide phenomenon, you know.”

It is hard to believe that a country should not __62__ education so seriously when there are no longer as many young people as before and view its opportunities only in terms of immediate financial gains, which greatly affects the quality of education. __63__, vocational education faces a double threat: frequent ups and downs in the business cycle and that of a flooding of cheap college certificates.

It is __64__ in a country with rapid development in many fields to see little reform and progress in its education system. When colleges are reduced to money-making machines, they cannot help a society create enough workers, thinkers and leaders.

50. A. necessary                   B. key                          C. new                         D. remote

51. A. this                           B. that                         C. it                             D. as

52. A. economy                    B. country                    C. city                          D. industry

53. A. in the near future        B. at present time          C. from time to time      D. in the long past

54. A. and some                   B. but none                   C. if any                       D. because such

55. A. different                   B. same                        C. opposite                   D. similar

56. A. result                         B. method                    C. reason                      D. expectation

57. A. some                         B. most                        C. few                          D. all

58. A. can                            B. must                        C. can’t                        D. mustn’t

59. A. took from                  B. picked out                C. caught sight of          D. learned from

60. A. spent                         B. cost                         C. wasted                            D. detected

61. A. cost money                B. make money             C. create money            D. deal with

62. A. put                                   B. set                           C. make                       D. take

63. A. Although                   B. Besides                    C. However                  D. Therefore

64. A. common                    B. likely                       C. worthwhile               D. surprising

Why does most of the world travel on the right side today? Theories differ, but there’s no doubt that Napoleon was a major influence. The French had used the right since at least the late 18th century. Some say that before the French Revolution, noblemen drove their carriages on the left, forcing the peasants to the right. Regardless of the origin, Napoleon brought right-hand traffic to the nations he conquered, including Russia, Switzerland and Germany. Hitler, in turn, ordered right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia and Austria in the 1930s. Nations that escaped right-hand control, like Great Britain, followed their left-hand tradition.

The U.S. has not always been a nation of right-hand rivers; earlier in its history, carriage and horse traffic traveled on the left, as it did in England. But by the late 1700s, people driving large wagons pulled by several pairs of horses began promoting a shift to the right. A driver would sit on the rear (后面的) left horse in order to wave his whip with his right hand; to see opposite traffic clearly, they traveled on the right.

One of the final moves to firmly standardize traffic directions in the U.S. occurred in the 20th century, when Henry Ford decided to mass-produce his cars with controls on the left (one reason, stated in 1908; the convenience for passengers exiting directly onto the edge, especially… if there is a lady to be considered). Once these rules were set, many countries eventually adjusted to the right-hand standard, including Canada in the 1920s, Sweden in 1967 and Burma in 1970. The U.K. and former colonies such as Australia and India are among the western world’s few remaining holdouts. Several Asian countries, including Japan, use the left as well — thought many places use both right-hand-drive and left-hand-drive cars.

1.Why did people in Switzerland travel on the right?

2.Of all the countries below, the one that travels on the right is ______.

3.Henry Ford produced cars with controls on the left _______.

4.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

5.What would be the best title for this passage?

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden change in pronunciation started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16^th century the British had contact with people from around the world. This means that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Spelling and grammar became fixed and the dialect （方言）of London became the standard. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published.

The numbers of words in Early Modern English and Late Modern English differ. Late Modern English has a lot more words because of two main factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire covered one quarter of the earth’s surface, and the English language took in foreign words from many countries.

From around 1600, the English colonization(殖民地化)of North America resulted in the creation of American English. Some English pronunciation and words  froze when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English. Some expressions that the British call “ Americanisms” are in fact original （原先的）British expressions that were preserved (保存) in the colonies but were lost in Britain. Spanish also had an influence on American English, with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English. French words and West African words also influenced American English.

Today, American English is the most influential(有影响力的). But there are many other kinds of English around the world, including Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English , Indian English and Caribbean English. They have differences.

1.What can we know from Paragraph 1?

2.From Paragraph 2, we know that the Industrial Revolution __________.

3.The underlined word “froze” in Paragraph 3 shows that some English words in America___________.

4.What will the paragraph following this passage most probably discuss?