单项选择题

High in a smooth ocean of sky floated a dazzling, majestic sun. Fragments of powdery cloud, like spray flung from a wave crest, sprinkled the radiant, lake-blue heaven.
Relaxed on a bundle of hay in a comer of a meadow bathed in sunlight, Paul lay dreaming. A gentle breeze was stirring the surrounding hedges; bees moved, humming thoughtfully, from scarlet poppy to purple thistle; a distant lark, invisible in blue light, was flooding the vast realm of the sky with glorious song, as the sun was flooding the earth with brilliance. Beyond the hedge a brook tinkled over softly-glowing pebbles. Butterflies hovered above nodding clover. An ant was busily exploring the uncharted territory of Paul’s suntanned wrist. A grasshopper skidded briskly over his ankle. And the blazing sun was steadily scorching his fair freckled face to bright lobster red. Neither sun, nor grasshopper, nor ant, however, was able to arouse him.
Not even when a fly started crawling over his face did he open his eyes. For Paul was a thousand miles away, in a world of eternal snow and ice. Across the towering mountain range, a bitter gale was screaming furiously as with one hand he gripped a projecting knob of rock while with his axe he hacked out the next narrow foothold in the rock. As their infallible guide, he was leading his gallant party of climbers up a treacherous, vertical wall of rock towards the lofty peak above, hitherto unconquered by man. A single slip, however trivial, would probably result in death for all of them. To his right he could glimpse the furrowed glacier sweeping towards the valley, but he was far too absorbed in his task to appreciate fully the scene around or even to be aware of a view of almost unearthly beauty. A sudden gust of wind nearly tore him from the ledge where he was perched. Gradually he raised his foot, tested the new foothold on the sheer rock wall, transferred his weight, and signaled to the climbers below.
Not until a tractor started working in the next field did he become conscious of his far from icy surroundings. He sat up, wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, glanced at his watch and sighed in resignation. He had a headache through sleeping in the hot sun, a pain in his shoulder from carrying his rucksack; his legs felt stiff and his feet ached. With no enthusiasm whatever he pulled the bulging rucksack over his shoulders and drew a large-scale map from his pocket. At the far end of the meadow two slates in the wall, which at this point replaced the hedge, indicated a stile, and beyond he could faintly see a thin thread of path which dwindled and finally disappeared as it climbed the steep slope of the down, quivering in the glare of the sun. The whole of Nature seemed to be luxuriating in warmth, sunshine and peace. Wherever he looked, leaves on twigs, grass blades, flower petals, all were sparkling in sunlight.
Fifteen miles off, over the ridge, across a broad valley and then over a higher, even steeper range of hills lay the youth hostel: supper, company, a cool dip in the river. With a momentary intense longing for ice-axe, blizzard, glacier and heroic exploit (none of which was at all familiar to him), Paul strode off unwillingly to less dramatic but equally heroic achievement in the tropical heat of an English sun.

单项选择题

The need for a satisfactory education is more important than ever before. Nowadays, without a qualification from a reputable school or university, the odds of landing that plum job advertised in the paper are considerably shortened. Moreover, one’s present level of education could fall well short of future career requirements.
It is no secret that competition is the driving force behind the need to obtain increasingly higher qualifications. In the majority of cases, the urge to upgrade is no longer the result of an insatiable thirst for knowledge. The pressure is coming from within the workplace to compete with ever more qualified job applicants, and in many occupations one must now battle with colleagues in the reshuffle for the position one already holds.
Striving to become better educated is hardly a new concept. Wealthy parents have always been willing to spend the vast amounts of extra money necessary to send their children to schools with a perceived educational edge. Working adults have long attended night schools and refresher courses. Competition for employment has been around since the curse of working for a living began. Is the present situation so very different to that of the past
The difference now is that the push is universal and from without as well as within. A student at secondary school receiving low grades is no longer as easily accepted by his or her peers as was once the case. Similarly, in the workplace, unless employees are engaged in part-time study, they may be frowned upon by their employers and peers and have difficulty even standing still. In fact, in these cases, the expectation is for careers to go backwards and earning capacity to take an appreciable nosedive.
At first glance, the situation would seem to be laudable—a positive response to the exhortation by a former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, for Australia to become the "clever country". Yet there are serious ramifications according to at least one educational psychologist. Dr Brendan Gatsby has caused some controversy in academic circles by suggesting that a bias towards what he terms paper excellence might cause more problems than it is supposed to solve. Gatsby raises a number of issues that affect the individual as well as society in general.
Firstly, he believes the extra workload involved is resulting in abnormally high stress levels in both students at secondary school and adults studying after working hours. Secondly, skills which might be more relevant to the undertaking of a sought-after job are being overlooked by employers interviewing candidates without qualifications on paper. These two areas of concern for the individual are causing physical and emotional stress respectively.
Gatsby also argues that there are attitudinal changes within society to the exalted role education now plays in determining how the spoils of working life are distributed. Individuals of all ages are being driven by social pressures to achieve academic success solely for monetary considerations instead of for the joy of enlightenment. There is the danger that some universities are becoming degree factories with an attendant drop in standards. Furthermore, our education system may be rewarding doggedness above creativity—the very thing Australians have been encouraged to avoid. But the most undesirable effect of this academic paper chase, Gatsby says, is the disadvantage "user pays" higher education confers on the poor, who invariably lose out to the more financially favored.
Naturally, although there is agreement that learning can cause stress, Gatsby’s comments regarding university standards have been roundly criticized as alarmist by most educationists who point out that, by any standard of measurement, Australia’s education system overall, at both secondary and tertiary levels, is equal to that of any in the world.

单项选择题

Chad’s government has denied a report from the French embassy that rebel forces are advancing on the capital N’Djamena. In a statement yesterday, officials said there was no column of rebels 400km from the capital. They reassured the population that N’Djamena is in no danger. Chad’s government has also deployed troops around the capital.
Earlier yesterday, the French embassy in Chad warned that a rebel column was moving towards the capital on the main highway. Rebels attacked and briefly held the eastern city of Abeche on Saturday, but government forces reclaimed the city yesterday.
France’s ambassador to Rwanda has left the country following the government’s decision to cut its ties with France. Officials say French Ambassador Dominique Decherf boarded the flight to Europe Saturday. Other French diplomats are expected to leave the country within days. The move was triggered by a French judge’s decision to issue international arrest warrants for top Rwandan officials in connection with Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. France’s Foreign Ministry said it regrets Rwanda’s decision.

单项选择题

It takes a while, as you wall around the streets of Nantes, a city of half a million people on the banks of the Loire River, to realize just what it is that is odd. Then you get it: There are empty parking lots, which is highly unusual in big French towns.
Two decades of effort to make life more livable by dissuading people from driving into town has made Nantes a beacon for other European cities seeking to shake dependence on the automobile.
The effects were clear recently during Mobility Week, a campaign sponsored by the European Union that prompted more than 1,000 towns across the Continent to test ways of making their streets, if not car-free, at least manageable. "That is an awfully difficult problem," acknowledges Joel Crawford, an author and leader of the "car free" movement picking up adherents all over Europe. "You can’t take cars out of cities until there is some sort of alternative in place. But there are a lot of forces pointing in the direction of a major reduction in car use, like the rise in fuel prices, and concerns about global warming."
Last week, proclaiming the slogan "In Town, Without my Car!" hundreds of cities closed off whole chunks of their centers to all but essential traffic. Nantes closed just a few streets, preferring to focus on alternatives to driving so as to promote "Clever Commuting," the theme of this year’s EU campaign. Volunteers pedaled rickshaws along the cobbled streets, charging passengers $1.20 an hour; bikes were available for free; and city workers encouraged children to wall to school along routes supervised by adults acting as Pied Pipers and picking up kids at arranged stops.
The centerpiece is a state-of-the-art tramway providing service to much of the town, and a network of free, multistory parking lots to encourage commuters to "park and ride." Rene Vincendo, a retired hospital worker waiting at one such parking lot for his wife to return from the city center, is sold. "To go into town, this is brilliant," he says. "I never take my car in now."
It is not cheap, though. Beyond the construction costs, City Hall subsidizes fares to the tune of 60 million euros ($72 million) a year, making passengers pay only 40 percent of operating costs.
That is the only way to draw people onto trams and buses, says de Rugy, since Nantes, like many European cities, is expanding, and commuters find themselves with ever-longer distances to travel. The danger, he warns, is that "the further you go down the route of car dependence, the harder it is to return, because so many shops, schools and other services are built beyond the reach of any financially feasible public-transport network." This, adds de Rugy, means that "transport policy is only half the answer. Urban planners and transport authorities have to work hand in hand to ensure that services are provided close to transport links."
The carrot-and-stick approach that Nantes has taken—cutting back on parking in the town center and making it expensive, while improving public transport—has not reduced the number of cars on the road. But it has "put a brake on the increase we would have seen otherwise" and that other European cities have seen, says Dominique Godineau, head of the city’s "mobility department.\

单项选择题

High in a smooth ocean of sky floated a dazzling, majestic sun. Fragments of powdery cloud, like spray flung from a wave crest, sprinkled the radiant, lake-blue heaven.
Relaxed on a bundle of hay in a comer of a meadow bathed in sunlight, Paul lay dreaming. A gentle breeze was stirring the surrounding hedges; bees moved, humming thoughtfully, from scarlet poppy to purple thistle; a distant lark, invisible in blue light, was flooding the vast realm of the sky with glorious song, as the sun was flooding the earth with brilliance. Beyond the hedge a brook tinkled over softly-glowing pebbles. Butterflies hovered above nodding clover. An ant was busily exploring the uncharted territory of Paul’s suntanned wrist. A grasshopper skidded briskly over his ankle. And the blazing sun was steadily scorching his fair freckled face to bright lobster red. Neither sun, nor grasshopper, nor ant, however, was able to arouse him.
Not even when a fly started crawling over his face did he open his eyes. For Paul was a thousand miles away, in a world of eternal snow and ice. Across the towering mountain range, a bitter gale was screaming furiously as with one hand he gripped a projecting knob of rock while with his axe he hacked out the next narrow foothold in the rock. As their infallible guide, he was leading his gallant party of climbers up a treacherous, vertical wall of rock towards the lofty peak above, hitherto unconquered by man. A single slip, however trivial, would probably result in death for all of them. To his right he could glimpse the furrowed glacier sweeping towards the valley, but he was far too absorbed in his task to appreciate fully the scene around or even to be aware of a view of almost unearthly beauty. A sudden gust of wind nearly tore him from the ledge where he was perched. Gradually he raised his foot, tested the new foothold on the sheer rock wall, transferred his weight, and signaled to the climbers below.
Not until a tractor started working in the next field did he become conscious of his far from icy surroundings. He sat up, wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, glanced at his watch and sighed in resignation. He had a headache through sleeping in the hot sun, a pain in his shoulder from carrying his rucksack; his legs felt stiff and his feet ached. With no enthusiasm whatever he pulled the bulging rucksack over his shoulders and drew a large-scale map from his pocket. At the far end of the meadow two slates in the wall, which at this point replaced the hedge, indicated a stile, and beyond he could faintly see a thin thread of path which dwindled and finally disappeared as it climbed the steep slope of the down, quivering in the glare of the sun. The whole of Nature seemed to be luxuriating in warmth, sunshine and peace. Wherever he looked, leaves on twigs, grass blades, flower petals, all were sparkling in sunlight.
Fifteen miles off, over the ridge, across a broad valley and then over a higher, even steeper range of hills lay the youth hostel: supper, company, a cool dip in the river. With a momentary intense longing for ice-axe, blizzard, glacier and heroic exploit (none of which was at all familiar to him), Paul strode off unwillingly to less dramatic but equally heroic achievement in the tropical heat of an English sun.

单项选择题

Scientists in the US have created a new strain of mosquito that’s resistant to malaria, meaning it can’t then pass the disease onto humans. But their release into the wild is several years away.
Scientists say this is a key step on a long journey towards fighting the disease with genetically modified mosquitoes. The researchers used a single genetic tweak to interfere with the production of a molecule in the insect’s gut. Previous studies have attempted a similar approach, but this is the first time that scientists have completely blocked the development of the malaria parasite inside the mosquito. This rendered the insect unable to spread the disease. The ultimate aim is to release these malaria-resistant mosquitoes into the wild, but scientists will first need to work on more genetic trickery to give their insects a competitive advantage over their disease-spreading counterparts.

单项选择题

Chad’s government has denied a report from the French embassy that rebel forces are advancing on the capital N’Djamena. In a statement yesterday, officials said there was no column of rebels 400km from the capital. They reassured the population that N’Djamena is in no danger. Chad’s government has also deployed troops around the capital.
Earlier yesterday, the French embassy in Chad warned that a rebel column was moving towards the capital on the main highway. Rebels attacked and briefly held the eastern city of Abeche on Saturday, but government forces reclaimed the city yesterday.
France’s ambassador to Rwanda has left the country following the government’s decision to cut its ties with France. Officials say French Ambassador Dominique Decherf boarded the flight to Europe Saturday. Other French diplomats are expected to leave the country within days. The move was triggered by a French judge’s decision to issue international arrest warrants for top Rwandan officials in connection with Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. France’s Foreign Ministry said it regrets Rwanda’s decision.

填空题Complete the gap-filling task. Some of the gaps below may require a maximum of THREE words. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to your notes.
Introduction to English Synonyms
Ⅰ. The reason for the (1) of English language
By constantly incorporating words from other languages through centuries
Ⅱ. The gradual incorporation of English words
1) Before 1066: Anglo-Saxon words
2) After 1066: words were borrowed from French, connected with food, clothing, law, (2) and organization, etc.
3) In the Renaissance: a great influx of words of (3) origin
4) In modem times: the vocabulary were expanded by people’s (4)
5) (5) vastly added to English vocabulary, e.g. jeep, railroad, fall, gasoline etc.
PART Ⅲ GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
1) synonyms from (6) but referring to the same thing, e.g. foreword, preface, introduction
2) synonyms referring to (7) of the same kind of thing, e.g. plain, prairie, tundra
3) synonyms having different degree of (8) , e.g. teach, educate, instruct, school, tutor
4) synonyms implying different (9) among the participants, e.g. accompany, escort, attend
5) synonyms having different degree of formality, e.g. luncheon vs lunch, go to bed vs hit the sack
Ⅳ. Conclusion
Correct choice of words is very important to the (10) expression.

单项选择题

(I—Interviewer; M—Michael)
I: With all your experience of interviewing, Michael, how can you tell if somebody is going to make a good interviewer
M: Oh, I say, what a question! I’ve never been asked that before. [1] I think that the prerequisite obviously is curiosity. I think that’s a natural one, not an assumed one. I think the people who have, um, done my job, and the graveyard of the BBC is littered with them. Their tombstones are there, you know, who failed, have been because basically they’ve not been journalists. Urn, my training was in journalism. I’ve been 26 years a journalist, and to be a journalist argues that you like meeting people-to start with, and also you want to find out about them. So that’s the prerequisite. After that, I think there’s something else comes into it, into play, and I think... most successful journalists have it. It’s a curious kind of affinity with people. It’s an ability to get on with people. It’s a kind of body warmth, if you like. If you knew the secret of it and could bottle it and sell it, you’d make a fortune.
I: When you’ve done an interview yourself, how do you feel whether it’s been a good interview or not a good interview
M: [2] I can never really, er, tell on air. I have to watch it back, because television depends so much on your director getting the right shot, the right reaction. You can’t. It’s amazing. Sometimes I think "Oh, that’s a boring interview" and just because of the way my director shot it, and shot reaction, he’s composed a picture that’s made it far more interesting than it actually was.
I: [3] How do you bring out the best in people, because you always seem to manage to, not only relax them, but somehow get right into the depths of them.
M: By research, by knowing, when you go into a television studio, more about the guest in front of you than they’ve forgotten about themselves. And, I mean, that’s pure research. You probably use, in a 20 minute interview, I probably use, a 20th of the research material that I’ve absorbed, but that’s what you’ve got to have to do. I once interviewed Robert Mitchum for 75 minutes and the longest reply I got from him was "yes". And that... that’s the only time I’ve used every ounce of research and every question that I’ve ever thought of, and a few that I hadn’t thought of as well. But that really is the answer—it’s research. When people say to you, you know, "Oh, you go out and wing it", I mean, that’s nonsense. If anybody ever tries to tell you that as an interviewer just starting, that you wing it, there’s no such thing. It’s all preparation. It’s knowing exactly what you’re going to do at any given point and knowing what you want from the person.
I: And does that include sticking’ to written questions or do you deviate
M: No, I mean what you do is you have an aide memoir. My list of questions aren’t questions as such. They’re areas that I block out. And indeed, I can’t remember... [4] I can’t recall, apart from the aforesaid Mr. Mitchum experience, when I’ve ever stuck to that at all, because, quite often you’ll find that they spin off into areas that you’ve not really thought about and perhaps it’s worth pursuing sometimes. The job is very much like, actually, a traffic cop; you’re like you’re on point duty and you’re directing the flow of traffic. Well, you’re directing the flow of conversation. That’s basically what you’re doing, when you’re doing a talk-show, in my view.
I: Have you got a last word of encouragement for any young people setting out on what they’d like to be a career as an interviewer
M: I... I envy them. I really do. I mean I’d go back and do it all again. [5] I think it’s the most perfect job for any young person who’s got talent and ambition and energy. And the nice thing about it is that the proportion of talent is indeed only 5 per cent, the other 95 per cent is energy, and there’s no examinations to pass. I’d love to do it over again.

单项选择题

Isn’t it amazing how one person, sharing one idea, at the right time and place can change the course of your life’s history This is certainly what happened in my life. When I was 14, I was hitchhiking from Houston, Texas, through El Paso on my way to California. I was following my dream, journeying with the sun. I was a high school dropout with learning disabilities and was set on surfing the biggest waves in the world, first in California and then in Hawaii, where I would later live.
Upon reaching downtown El Paso, I met an old man, a bum, on the street comer. He saw me walking, stopped me and questioned me as I passed by. He asked me if I was running away from home, I suppose because I looked so young. I told him, "Not exactly, sir," since my father had given me a ride to the freeway in Houston and given me his blessings while saying, "It is important to follow your dream and what is in your heart, son."
The bum then asked me if he could buy me a cup of coffee. I told him, "No, sir, but a soda would be great." We walked to a comer malt shop and sat down on a couple of swiveling stools while we enjoyed our drinks.
After conversing for a few minutes, the friendly burn told me to follow him. He told me that he had something grand to show me and share with me. We walked a couple of blocks until we came upon the downtown E1 Paso Public Library.
We walked up its front steps and stopped at a small information stand. Here the bum spoke to a smiling old lady, and asked her if she would be kind enough to watch my things for a moment while he and I entered the library. I left my belongings with this grandmotherly figure and entered into this magnificent hall of learning.
The bum first led me to a table and asked me to sit down and wait for a moment while he looked for something special amongst the shelves. A few moments later, he returned with a couple of old books under his arms and set them on the table. He then sat down beside me and spoke. He started with a few statements that were very special and that changed my life. He said, "There are two things that I want to teach you, young man, and they are these:
"Number one is to never judge a book by its cover, for a cover can fool you." He followed with, "I bet you think I’m a bum, don’t you, young man"
I said, "Well, uh, yes, I guess so, sir."
"Well, young man, I’ve got a little surprise for you. I am one of the wealthiest men in the world. I have probably everything any man could ever want. I originally come from the Northeast and have all the things that money can buy. But a year ago, my wife passed away, bless her soul, and since then I have been deeply reflecting upon life. I realized there were certain things I had not yet experienced in life, one of which was what it would be like to live like a bum on the streets. I made a commitment to myself to do exactly that for one year. For the past year, I have been going from city to city doing just that. So, you see, don’t ever judge a book by its cover, for a cover can fool you. "
"Number two is to learn how to read, my boy, for there is only one thing that people can’t take away from you, and that is your wisdom. "At that moment, he reached forward, grabbed my right hand in his and put them upon the books he’d pulled from the shelves. They were the writings of Plato and Aristotle—immortal classics from ancient times.
The bum then led me back past the smiling old woman near the entrance, down the steps and back on the streets near where we first met. His parting request was for me to never forget what he taught me.