我宁愿考不及格，也不愿意考试作弊。(would rather)

Charles Dickens is often thought of as one of England’s greatest writers. Yet for many his language is old-fashioned and his story plots often improbable. Why, Dickens, out of so many other great English writers, has made the list? How then to explain Dickens’s enduring popularity?

One reason undoubtedly is the British government’s insistence that every child studies a Dickens novel at school. Alongside William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens is a compulsory(必读的) writer on every English literature school reading list. His stories, though often over-long by today’s standard, are superbly written moral tales. They are filled with colorful characters.

But what makes his books stand out from other English writers is his insight into human nature. Dickens, like Shakespeare, tells us truths about human behavior that are as true to citizens of the 21^st century as they were to his readers in the 19^th century. Readers have returned to Dickens’s books again and again over the years to see what he has to say about readers’ own time.

The BBC adapted one of his less well-known novels, Little Dorrit, into a popular television drama that introduced many Brits to the novel for the first time. A dark story about greed and money, it was the perfect story to illustrate the bad times. No surprise then that it was Dickens Britons turned to, during the economic crisis last year, to make sense of a world rapidly falling apart.

Readers of the 19th and early 20th century usually prized Dickens’s earlier novels for their humor and pathos. While recognizing the virtues of these books, critics today tend to rank more highly the later works because of their formal coherence and acute perception of the human condition. For as long as Dickens’s novels have something to say to modern audiences, it seems likely that he will remain one of Britain’s best loved writers.

As I was thinking about language learning the other day, the image of baking bread came into my mind. I compared some of the exercises and drills that we put ourselves through in order to learn a language to the various ingredients(原料) that go into baking a loaf of fresh bread.

Real language learning takes place in human relationships. No one sits down and eats a cup of flour, even if he is hungry and in a hurry. You don’t become bilingual(双语的) by learning lists of vocabulary. You don’t become a speaker of a language by memorizing verb conjugations (动词的变化) and agreement rules. You become bilingual by entering a community that uses that other language as its primary means of communication.

I am not suggesting that we can make bread without ingredients. Flour is necessary, as are yeast（酵母）, salt, water and other ingredients. Vocabulary is part of any language and will have to be learned. Grammatical rules exist in every language and cannot be ignored. But merely combining the appropriate ingredients in the recommended proportions does not result in bread. At best, you only end up with a ball of dough(面团).

In order to get bread, you have to apply heat to the dough. And in language learning, that heat comes from the community. Anyone who has learned a second language has experienced that heat. It creeps up your neck when you ask the babysitter, “Have you already been eaten?” when you meant to say, “Have you already eaten?” When you try to say something quite innocent and the whole room bursts into laughter, you are experiencing the heat that turns raw dough into good bread.

Remember the old saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”? This is where language learning often breaks down because we find the heat uncomfortable and we stop the baking process. In order words, we can’t stand the heat, so we get out of the kitchen.

However, the language learner who stays in the kitchen―in the heat―until the combined ingredients are thoroughly transformed will enjoy the richness of a quality loaf of bread. He is lad that he did not “get out of the kitchen” at the critical moment when the oven seemed too hot. The dedicated language learner knows that becoming bilingual cannot be achieved without the heat!

76. The passage is mainly about _____.

A.    how we can make baking bread with various ingredients

B.     how to become bilingual by communicating with others

C.    what an important role “heat” plays in learning a language

D.    what a high quality of bread you may achieve in the kitchen

77. You can become a speaker of a language by _____.

A. bearing millions of words and expressions in your mind

B. using the language to communicate with those around you

C. knowing verb conjugations and grammatical rules

D. saying something innocent to be laughed at by others

78. What’s the purpose of illustration of the example―you ask the babysitter, “Have you already been eaten?” when you meant to say, “Have you already eaten?”?

A. To verify that you are sure to make some mistakes when you enter a community.

B. To show that you should combine the ingredients in the recommended proportions.

C. To prove that you may experience “heat” from the community in language learning.

D. To indicate that being bilingual calls for your courage, confidence and perseverance.

79. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT the necessity of baking bread and learning language?

A.    Excellent Skills.

B.     Various ingredients.

C.    Appropriate proportions.

D.    Uncomfortable heat.

New Zealand Education

¨  Compulsory Education

Compulsory education starts at age 5 and ends at age 16. The day children turn 5, they are expected to start school. They can leave school as soon as they reach 16.

¨  Class Size

The maximum number of students in a class is 30 students.

¨  Classrooms

Students from year 0―8 stay in the same classroom for most subjects and move to other classrooms only for specific subjects. Even when they move from one classroom to another, they mostly stay together as a class. In year 9, students take some courses with their homeroom class and some optional classes with students from different classes. Starting from year 10, students no longer stay in the same classroom most of the time nor do they move around with their classes. They go to different classes based on their own choice and abilities.

¨  Term Dates

A school year starts in January and ends in December. There are four terms in a year. Each term is about 10 weeks.

¨  Class Schedule

School starts at around 8:30 and ends at 15:15. There are only five periods a day and a period is about an hour long. In the morning, around 10:30, there will be a 20―30 minute interval when students and staff have morning tea. Students usually have some snacks during this time, and staff gathers in the staff room to drink coffee and eat some snacks. There is a lunch period at around 12:40 for about an hour.

¨  Teachers

In New Zealand, teachers have to teach students of different year level at the same time. Most teachers teach students from at least three to four different year levels. In addition, quite a number of teachers teach more than one subject. This is mainly due to the fact that many courses are optional.

69. This passage is most probably taken from _____.

A. an educational booklet

B. a school website

C. a traveling guide

D.an academic report

70. When you are in your 10^th school year, you may _____.

A. stay with your classmates in the same classroom for all the subjects

B. choose and take some optional courses with your homeroom class

C. have both required and optional classes with the same classmates

D. choose different classes based on your own choice and abilities

71. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. You are obliged to leave school when you are 16 in New Zealand.

B. The total of school time per year is about 40 weeks in New Zealand.

C. Students have a 20―30 minute interval between each period in New Zealand.

D. Most teachers in New Zealand teach one subject for at least three to four years.

The big screen is never short of films about World WarⅡ. When Nazi Germany is featured in these films, cruel Nazi officers and brutal concentration（集中营） camps most often represent it. But the new Hollywood movie Valkyrie tells a different story, “a chapter of German history which is little known abroad”, according to the German Cultural Minister Bernd Neumann.

Valkyrie is based on a true incident that took place in 1944. Colonel(陆军上校) Stauffenberg had been a loyal soldier for his entire military career. However, after losing an eye, a hand, and three fingers in an Allied bombing, he reached breaking point. The destruction that his country had brought to its European neighbors had become too terrible for the colonel to bear in silence. He hoped that someone would find a way to stop Adolf Hitler, one of the most evil tyrants（暴君） the world has ever known. Realizing that time was running out, he decided that he must take action himself and joined the German resistance. These men drew up Operation Valkyrie, a plot to assassinate(刺杀) Hitler and to overthrow his Nazi government from the inside. This plot is what the film is named after and focuses on.

The Hollywood star Tom Cruise plays the lead role. “This was a very challenging film to make. We carried a huge responsibility to correctly portray history,” Cruise said.

However, the production has drawn criticism for lacking depth and for simplifying the motives behind the plot.

65. The passage tells us that Valkyrie is _____.

A.  a story written by Bernd Neuman

B.   a chapter in a German history book

C.  a movie about Nazi concentration camps

D.  a movie about a plan to assassinate Hitler

66. What does the sentence “he reached breaking point” probably mean?

A. He narrowly escaped being killed.

B. He couldn’t reach out his arm for anything.

C. He was rewarded for his brave attempts.

D. He decided to make a historic change in life.

67. Why did Tom Cruise say the film was challenging for him?

A. Because he never acted in such kind of film before.

B. Because he knew little about this episode of history.

C. Because he felt it a heavy task to present the real history.

D. Because he was afraid that the film might draw criticism.

68. The following passage will probably talk about _____.

A.      the reason why the film is named after Valkyrie

B.      the comments from the movie critics on Valkyrie

C.      the praises from audience after watching Valkyrie

D.     the importance of the role Cruise plays in Valkyrie

On the morning of January 1 two European cities woke up as European Capital of Culture for 2009. The residents of Linz, the third largest city of Austria, and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania(立陶宛), were given the __50__ by the European Union. The title offers the two cities the chance to improve their fortunes by showing the rest of Europe how exciting they are __51__.

The cities of Linz and Vilnius are __52__ to compete hard to attract the most international attention. Both are old cities, but __53__ Vilnius has better cared for its medieval（中世纪的） buildings, Linz’s __54__ scene is more lively than Vilnius’s. Each city certainly __55__ the title, but it is difficult to say if one is more culturally exciting than the other.

No Austrian city has changed as __56__ as Linz has in recent years. It was once a nice, quiet commercial town, founded by the Romans, along the river Danube(多瑙河). It became famous for being the place where Adolf Hitler partly grew-up. Later it became an __57__ city and today Linz is a modern place with a/an __58__ arts and music scene. To __59__ what is special about the city, Linz plans to tell the story of its city musical shows and events through 2009.

Vilnius, like Linz, has also __60__ much in recent years. __61__ a large medieval town, it is today a modern European city. __62__ Vilnius’s many changes, the city has preserved its historic center, which __63__ one of the largest in Europe. The city is famous for its narrow medieval streets.

To mark winning the European Capital of Culture title, the Lithuanian city held an enormous 2009 New Year’s Eve __64__. It included a light show said to have been “visible from outer space”, an achievement Linz had yet to beat.

Each of us fails from time to time. If we are wise, we accept these failures as a necessary part of the learning process. But all too often we __41__ to our children either by words or by actions that failure is something to be ashamed of, that nothing but top performance meets our __42__.

Donnie was my youngest student. His fear of failure kept him from classroom games that other children played excitedly. He __43__ answered questions―he might be wrong. I tried my best to build his self-confidence. But nothing changed until midterm, when Mary Anne, a student teacher, was assigned to our classroom. She was young and pretty, and she loved children. My pupils, Donnie included, __44__ her. But even enthusiastic, loving Mary was __45__ by this little boy who feared he might make a mistake.

Then one morning we were working math problems. I left the children with Mary. But when I returned, Donnie was in tears. He’d missed the third problem. Mary looked at me in despair. Suddenly her face __46__. From the desk we shared, she got a canister(小筒) filled with pencils. She removed the pencils and placed them on his desk. “See these pencils, Donnie?” she said, “They belong to Mrs Lindstrom and me. See how the erasers are worn? That’s because we make __47__ too. But we erase the mistakes and try again.” She kissed him and continued, “I’ll leave one of these pencils on your desk so you’ll remember that everybody makes mistakes, even teachers.” Donnie looked up with love in his eyes and just a glimmer of a smile.

The pencil became Donnie’s prized possession. That, together with Mary Anne’s __48__ encouragement and praise for even Donnie’s small successes, __49__ persuaded him that it’s all right to make mistakes―as long as you erase them and try again.

In recent years travel companies have succeeded in selling us the idea _____ the further we go, the better our holiday will be.

A. of which                  B. where                      C. which                      D. that

We’re conducting a nationwide survey of people’s reading habits. Do you have five     minutes _____ a few questions?                                                

  A. answering                                                       B. to answer                

  C. to have answered                                             D. having answered