70. The article mainly tells us about __________.

A. the great inventors in the world

B. the important inventions in the world

C. the short history of household machines

D. the importance of the machines used in the home

IV. PART FOUR WRITING

SECTION A(10 points)

Directions: Read the following passage. Complete the diagram/Fill in the numbered blanks by using the information for the passage. Write NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS for each answer.

As the US wakes up to China’s rising status(地位)as an economic and strategic competitor, US parents are urging their children to learn Chinese, reports Julian Borger.

The US is being swept by a rush to learn Mandarin(普通话)-- from wealthy New York mothers hiring Chinese nannies(保姆)for their small children to a defence department education project in Oregon.

The forces driving Mandarin’s momentum(势头)are parental ambition for children facing a future in which China is almost certain to be a major player, and the government is worried about that America may get left behind in that new world.

The bottleneck is the supply of teachers. Mandarin instructors are difficult to import and difficult to train. There are visa problems in bringing over teachers from China but the biggest barrier is cultural. Teaching in Asia is generally done by rote and the change to western, interactive styles of instruction can be a large leap(跳越).

On the other hand, it requires enormous firmness for westerners to learn a language like Chinese, with its thousands of written characters. According to the Asia Society in New York, all of America’s teacher-training institutions turn out only a couple of dozen homegrown Mandarin teachers.

One way to ease the shortage is to find native Mandarin speakers and use fast-track methods to train them. However, the majority of Chinese-Americans grew up speaking Cantonese, the dialect(方言)spoken in Hong Kong, where their parents came from. Many are themselves signing on as Mandarin students at the private language schools springing up on the west coast.

Title:　 　　71　　 　in the USA

SECTION B(10 points)

Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage and the required words limit.

Write your answers on your answer sheet.

Lights went out at tourism landmarks(地标)and homes across the globe on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event aimed to highlight the threat from climate change.

From the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and London's Houses of Parliament, lights were turned off as part of a campaign to encourage people to cut energy use and control greenhouse gas emissions from fuels.

Organizers said the action showed millions of people wanted governments to work out a strong new U. N. deal to fight global warming by the end of 2009, even though the global economic crisis has raised worries about the costs.

"We have been dreaming of a new climate deal for a long time," Kim Carstensen, head of a global climate organization at the conservation group WWF, said in a bar in the German city of Bonn, which hosts U. N. climate talks between March 29 and April 8.

"Now we're no longer so alone with our dream. We're sharing it with all these people switching off their lights," he said.

The UN Climate Panel says greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and will lead to more floods, droughts, rising sea levels and animal and plant extinctions.

World emissions have risen by about 70 percent since the 1970s.

Australia first held Earth Hour in 2007 and it went global in 2008, attracting 50 million people, organizers say. WWF, which started the event, is hoping one billion people from nearly 90 countries will take part.

69. The underlined word “crude” in the sentence “but it was crude by today’s standards.” probably means __________.

A. useless　　　　　　 B. ugly-looking　　　 　C. rough　　　　 D. not skillfully made

68. According to the article, modern inventors __________.

A. followed the pattern of the first revolving drum but improve it much

B. only imitated the first washing machine

C. powered the first ever-made washing machine by electricity

D. had to wait for the first spin-drier for a long time

67. Whose sewing machine could do far more than the work that was done by five skilled sewing women?

A. Thomas Saint’s.　 B. Bartelemy Thimonier’s.　 C. Elias Howe’s.　 D. Isaac Singer’s.

66. Inventors patent the inventions so as to __________ .

A. produce more machines　　　　　　　　　 B. avoid being copied by others

C. make the inventions more popular　　　　　 D. make more money

65. By studying the cave art, scientists know something about _________.

A. how ancient people crossed the North Sea

B. why some of the animals have died out

C. how humans spread out across the world

D. what kind of animals people hunt at that time

(D)

Machines in the home have a short history. Sewing machines, washing machines and tumble dries are common enough today, but a hundred years ago few people could even imagine such things. However, inventors have designed and built a wide range of household machines since then. In most cases the inventor tried to patent(申请专利)his machine, to stop anyone copying it. Then he tried to produce a lot of them. If the machine became popular, the inventor could make a lot of money.

In 1790 the first sewing machine was patented. The inventor was an Englishman called Thomas Saint. There was nothing to match his machine for forty years, and then someone built a similar device. He was a Frenchman, Bartelemy Thimonier. Neither of these early machines worked very well, however. It wasn’t until 1846 that an inventor came up with a really efficient sewing machine. He was an American, Elias Howe and his machine was good enough to beat five skilled sewing women. He didn’t make much money from it, however. The first commercially successful sewing machine was patented by Isaac Singer five years later.

Today, we take washing machines for granted, but there was none before 1869. The revolving drum(旋转桶)of that first machine set a pattern for the future, but it was crude by today’s standards. The drum was turned by hand, and needed a lot of effort. Eight years passed before someone produced an electric washing machine. The world had to wait even longer for a machine to dry clothes. The first spin-drier was another American invention, patented in 1924; but it was 20 years before such machines were widely used.

It was yet another American, called Bissell, who introduced the carpet sweeper. He patented the original machine back in 1876. It didn’t pick up dirt very well, but it was quicker than a dustpan and brush. Thirty-six years later, even the carpet sweeper was old-fashioned: modern homes now have a vacuum cleaner with an electric motor to suck the dust.

64. Why do scientists say the art is quite old?

A. The art was carved into stone with stone tools.

B. The animals carved in the stone are beautiful.

C. The cave is one of the farthest point in the world.

D. Some pictures were covered by stalagmites more than 10,000 years old.

63. The underlined word “archaeologists” in this passage probably means people ________.

A. who study things left behind by people in the past

B. who have rich experience in painting

C. who are interested in wild animals

D. who are good at using stone tools

62. Which of the following can be used as the best title of the passage?

A. Cave Art About Animals Is Most Beautiful

B. Cave Art Found in an Unusual Way

C. Cave Art Turns Out to Be Britain’s Oldest

D. Cave Art in Britain

61. Of these two advertisements, which one doesn’t provide the address?

A. The first one.　　　　　 B. The second one　 C. Neither one　　 D. We have no idea.

(C)

Scientists recently discovered that pictures on cave walls at Creswell Crags are the oldest known in Great Britain. But they didn’t find out in the usual way.

Archaeologists often date cave art with a process called radiocarbon dating. The technique can measure the age of carbon found in charcoal(木炭)drawings or painted pictures. Carbon is an element found in many things, including charcoal and even people. But in this case, there was no paint or charcoal to test. People carved the pictures of animals and figures into the rock using stone tools. The scientists had an “aha!” moment when they noticed small rocks stuck to the top of the drawings. The small rocks must have formed after the drawings were made.

“It is rare to be able to scientifically date rock art,” said Alistair Pike, an archaeological scientist at Britain’s University of Bristol. “We were very fortunate that some of the engravings were covered by stalagmites(石笋).

When a test proved that the stalagmites formed 12,800 years ago, the scientists knew the art underneath them had to be at least that old. And some of the animals shown, like the European bison, are now extinct--another tip-off that the art is quite old.

The artists came to Creswell Crags, This place is one of the farthest points north reached by our ancient ancestors during the Ice Age. At that time, much of the North Sea was dry, so people could move about more easily.

Some tools and bones found there are 13,000 to 15,000 years old. They show that the travelers hunted horses, reindeer, and arctic hare. Their artwork is similar to art in France and Germany. It tells scientists that the Creswell Crags artists must have had a close connection to peoples several thousand kilometers away－another important clue to understanding how humans spread out across the world.