6、Beijingers are Eager to Learn Oral English

     Yang Peng has been a taxi driver for years. He knows every corner of the city. His hospitable (好客的) manner usually earns him thanks — except when he meets foreigners. For Yang does not know any English.

     “Now I study English in my spare time.” said Yang, in his 40s’. He pulls an English textbook from the toolbox. “I study English to help with Beijing’s Olympic bid,” he explained proudly. Yang is just one of ordinary people in Beijing who started to learn English when the capital announced its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

     Learning and speaking English is “hot” among residents of this 3,000-year-old city. From school to factories, men and women, old and young, are studying their “ABC” with enthusiasm. Many English text books with the Olympic bid logo(标语) on the cover were published and sold in the city. Books teaching basic idioms and expressions for daily communication are the most popular. Employees in public service industries, such as taxi drivers, bus conductors and the police, were asked by their employers to learn basic English. Nearly 3,000 students from 50 universities in Beijing hit the streets last month as volunteers to teach the citizens English. The students teach common phrases, such as greetings and asking and answering simple questions.

     A survey shows that some 15 percent of Beijingers speak English. The percentage is expected to increase to 20 or 30 percent during the campaign years. In addition, the government encourages the use of English in many areas. The city metros(地铁) broadcast information in both English and Chinese.

     English is regarded as the most important working language other than Chinese for the Olympics. According to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Bid Committee (BOBICO), almost all committee staff members are fluent in English. Many are language experts. All the reports are being conducted in English during the International Olympic Committee Evaluation Panel’s visit, which began Wednesday.

1．Beijingers are eager to learn oral English because ________.

A．it is very popular among people in Beijing

B．the capital announced its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games

C．Beijing has attracted more and more foreigners to go sight-seeing

D．they are hoping to do good to Beijing’s 2008 Olympic bid

2．Nearly 3,000 from 50 universities in Beijing hit the streets last month so as to ________.

    A．practice their oral English

    B．show their enthusiasm toward the 2008 Olympic bid

    C．tell people how to learn English well in a short time

    D．teach the citizens English, especially common phrases

3．The underlined word “other than” here probably refers to ________.

    A．except     B．besides     C．not     D．different from

4．The main idea of the text is ________.

    A．English will become the leading language in Beijing

    B．people in Beijing are eager to learn oral English

    C．what causes so many people to learn oral English

    D．the position of English is becoming more and more important

5、Fear is a fact of life everyone faces from time to time. In most cases fear is a healthy reaction to a dangerous situation. But sometimes fear can be so extreme, so overwhelming that it interferes with normal living. That is what happened to me driving cross-country last summer.

I’d agreed to help my brother, Mac, move from the East Coast to California. He would drive a rental truck loaded with his belongings and I would follow him in his sedan, then fly back. We figured it would be a simple trip, with four or five motel ( 摩托旅馆 ) stops along the way.

Living and working in coastal Georgia for most of my life, I didn’t have a great deal of long-distance driving experience. Looking back on it today, I can see that I’d always felt a twinge of fear when driving over small bridges and along hilly highways. And as I was getting ready for the trip I had a vague (模糊的)concern about the steep mountain roads that lay ahead. But I thought I would get used to them.

As we crossed some high bridges near the Blue Ridge Mountains on the first leg of our trip, a kind of breathlessness gripped（抓住）me, a sinking, rolling sensation in the pit of my stomach. I tended to veer slightly away from the edge of the roadway and the drop-off beyond. My knuckles(手指关节) whitened from my tense grip on the steering wheel. At the end of each bridge, a great rush of relief would come over me, only to be replaced in short order by fear of the next obstacle.

When we stopped in Nashville the first night, I mentioned my feelings to Mac, who is the practical sort. “Oh, that’s nothing,” he said cheerfully. Lots of people hate driving on mountain roads and high bridges. Just turn up the music on your radio and focus on that. Keep your mind occupied.”

1．Which is Not the author’s attitude towards fear?

       A．Fear can sometimes disturb your life.

       B．It is natural to feel fear in everyday life.

       C．In dangerous situations, fear may do good to your body.

       D．Whenever you feel fear, you are likely to make a wrong decision.

2．How did the author and his brother go to California?

  A．They rented a truck and drove it in turn.

  B．The author and his brother drove different vehicles.

  C．The author drove while his brother flew to California.

  D．The author drove a rented car while his brother drove the truck.

3．To the author the trip is ___________.

  A．frightening         B．pleasant               C．nervous             D．exhausting

4．Mac asked his brother to turn on the radio and focus on that in order to let him _______.

  A．keep using his brains             

  B．kill time during the long trip

  C．think of other things instead of fear

      D．enjoy the beautiful music along the way 

4、The following is taken from a VOA Special English Education Report on VOA, The Voice of America. Read carefully and answer the questions that follow this passage:

       1．Today, we answer a question from Martin in Mexico City. He asks about the kinds of degrees that students can earn at an American college or university.

       2．American higher education offers degrees in many areas of study. A community college student earns an associate degree after two years of general study. The student may then continue at a college or university for another two years to earn a bachelor’s degree.

       3．An undergraduate student at a four-year school earns a bachelor’s degree. Students majoring in an area of science receive the bachelor of science, also known by the letters B.S. Arts or humanities students get the bachelor of arts degree, or B.A.

       4．M.B.A．programs teach about economics, finance and marketing. They also teach about the structure of organizations and other subjects. Business is a popular subject for students who come to the United States. To be admitted to an M.B.A．program, a foreign student must have a bachelor's degree and a good score on the TOEFL. Most students also take the Graduate Management Admission Test. Most of the one thousand eight hundred M.B.A．programs around the world use these test scores.

       5．The Graduate Management Admission Council says that foreign students should find out what different schools could do to help them find a job after they receive their degree. Representatives from many companies visit colleges to hire students. You should ask how many companies are willing to hire international students. The council says even the best schools may have fewer job placements for international graduates than for others.

       6．Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with a report about the highest degree a student can earn at an American university — the doctorate.

1．The following paragraph is taken from the above passage. Where do you think it should be put ?

Students who continue in school may earn a master’s degree after two or three more years of study. Many Americans earn master's degrees at night or on the weekends while they are working. One example of this is the M.B.A., a master’s degree in business administration. Students learn to deal with all kinds of business situations. They develop skills needed by many companies.

       A．Between paragraph 1 and paragraph 2.                                 

       B．Between paragraph 2 and paragraph 3.

       C．Between paragraph 3 and paragraph 4.                                 

       D．Between paragraph 4 and paragraph 5.

2．A community college student can earn a bachelor’s degree_________.

A．after two years of general study      

B．after four years of general study

C．after two years of study with an associate degree

D．after study at a four-year school

3．If you are willing to spend enough time studying in an American university, you will most likely to get a/an ________ degree in the end.

    A．doctor’s          B．bachelor’s        C．associate         D．master’s

4．It can be inferred from the text that ________.

A．different schools could be of the same help to their students

B．the international students in the best school will surely get a job placement

C．not all of the M.B.A．programs around the world use the test scores on the TOEFL

D．information on the Foreign Student Series can be obtained only over the radio

3、WASHINGTON, March 13—When 17-year-old Mary Masterman set out to build a spectrograph（摄谱仪）, she knew it would be no easy task. The device, an instrument used to identify characteristics of different kinds of molecules, can cost thousands of dollars, and Mary was building on a budget. “I wanted to build one that was lower costing so it would be more available to anyone interested in spectrography（摄谱术）,” Mary said.

A senior at Westmoore High School in Oklahoma City, Mary built the spectrograph at home for $300, and her project won the top prize of a $100,000 scholarship in the Intel Science Talent Search Monday night in Washington. “The most challenging part was trying to get it to work,” said Mary, who said she hoped to attend Stanford or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I had to keep coming up with creative ways to adjust or change something,” she saiD．“It took three months to build and another three months before it actually functioned properly.” Mary said she chose to build a spectrograph because of its many applications in forensics（法医检查）, medicine and artwork analysis.

Some 1,700 students entered this year’s contest, and 40 finalists were chosen, all of whom won a laptop computer and a cash prize. The finalists were almost equally divided by sex. Six women were among the top 10．The second-place winner was John Pardon, 17, of Chapel Hill, N.C., who researched the unfolding of simple closed curves. He won a $75,000 scholarship. Dmitry Vaintrob, 18, from South Eugene High School in Eugene, Ore., won the third-place, a $50,000 scholarship, for a mathematics project exploring loop homology.

New York produced 12 finalists, more than any other state. Two New Yorkers placed in the top 10．Elizabeth Marincola, president of Science Service, the nonprofit group that administers the contest, said winners had a certain “spark”. “They have a deep passion for their research,” Ms. Marincola said.

1．What is the best title of the passage? (Please answer within 10 words.)

2．Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?

Altogether Mary spent 6 months to build a cheap spectrograph which could work with real functions.

3．What was the final result of the contest? And what conclusion can we draw from the contest result? (Please answer within 30 words.)

4．Translate the underlined sentence in the fourth paragraph into Chinese.

2、Li Hua: David, I came across the phrase “the gap year” when I read a newspaper article about

education in the UK. What is “the gap year”?

David: Well, I’m (1 ) a         in the gap year now. After getting away from all of those

(2 )t        , papers and presentations, many students find they need to take a little

break, for an (3 )e        year.  When I (4 )g         from middle school three

months ago,I decided to take a year (5)o         before going to university. There

are about 200,000 “gappers” every year, 130,000 of (6)w        have just finished

with middle school.                           

Li Hua:  So you are one (7)a         them. But what do you usually do in the gap year?

David:     Often students use the gap year to travel around the world, learning foreign languages,

meeting different peoples and (8)e        different cultures. And that’s why I have

been here.

Li Hua:  But, do you miss your parents?

David:     “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” (9)T         away from home, I feel (10)

c       to them.                                    

1、目前,<学生双语报>正在举行一次关于英语学习的讨论.请你根据下列提示,给报社的Editor Zhang写一封信,表达你的观点.

注意:1.书信的格式已经写好,不计入总数.

     2.要展开论述你的观点,不能逐条翻译.

     3.字数:120左右.

                                                              Oct. 25, 2007

Dear Editor Zhang,

I am glad to write to you on English study. In my opinion, it is necessary for Chinese to learn English.

Best wishes.

                                                        Yours sincerely

                                                                Li Juan

33、They gave each competitor a number, but they _____ NO.13 as no one wanted to have it.

A. picked out    B. turned out         C. left out       D. worked out

32、----- Would you like to buy a new MP4?

----- Sure, but I _____ . I don’t have enough money at the moment.

A. don’t afford    B. can’t afford to     C. afford to          D. will afford

31、Dogs, if _____ properly, can assist the police in many ways.

A. training       B. trained            C. being trained    D. to be trained