Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choice marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
My father woke me up early one morning when I was fourteen and announced: "Get up! You’re going with me to cut grass." I felt proud and excited because my father thought I was responsible enough to help him in his business. Still that first day was really hard. From sunrise to sunset, my father, my younger brother and I cut and trimmed very large yards in a well-to-do part of the city. By the end of the day I was exhausted but I felt food. I had put in a hard day’s labor and had earned six dollars. One day my father spotted some weeds I had missed cutting and pulled me aside. "Get that section again," he said firmly. "Don’t let me have to tell you to do the job right the first time." In every job I have held，from cutting lawns to washing dishes to working a machine in a construction site, I have learnt something that help me in my next job. If you look hard enough, you can learn from any job you do.
11. How did the speaker feel when his father asked him to help cut grass?
12.What did his father do when the speaker missed cutting some leaves?
13.What did the speaker want to tell us in this passage?
Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.
11. A) Anxious and worried. C) Nervous and confused.
B) Proud and excited. D) Inspired and confident.
12. A) His father scolded him severely. C) His father made him do the cutting again.
B) His father took back the six dollars. D) His father cut the leaves himself.
13. A) One can benefit a lot from working with his father.
B) Manual labourers shouldn’t be looked down upon.
C) One should always do his job earnestly.
D) Teenagers tend to be careless.
Passage Two
I live in a small village in the country. My wife and I run the village shop. We have a very peaceful life. "Boring ", some might say. But we love it. We know all the people in the village and have plenty of time to stop and chat. I have plenty of time for my hobbies too, gardening, fishing, and walking in the countryside. I love the outdoor life. It wasn’t always like this though. I used to have a really stress job, working till late in the office every evening and often bringing work home at the weekend. The advertising world is very competitive and when I look back, I can’t imagine how I stayed it. I had no private life at all, no time for the really important things in life. Because of the pressure of the job I used to smoke and drink too much. The crisis came when my wife left me .She complained that she never saw me and I had no time for family life. This made me realize what was really important to me. I talked things through with her and decided to get back together again and started a new and better life together. I gave up tobacco and alcohol, and searched for new hobbies. Now I am afraid looking back since the past life seemed a horrible dream.
14. What did the speaker use to do for a living?
15. What do we know about the speaker’s life in the past?
16. What made the speaker change his life style?
Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.
14. A) He ran a village shop. C) He worked in an advertising agency.
B) He worked on a farm. D) He was a gardener.
15. A) It was stressful. C) It was peaceful.
B) It was colorful. D) It was boring.
16. A) His desire to start Iris own business. C) The decline in his health.
B) The crisis in his family life. D) His dream of living in the countryside.
Passage Three
"Where is the university" is the question many visitors to Cambridge asked, but no one could point them in any one direction because there is no campus. The university consists of thirty-one self-governing colleges. It has lecture halls, libraries, laboratories, museums and offices throughout the city. Individual colleges choose their own students who have to meet the minimum entrance requirements set by the university. Undergraduates usually live and study in their colleges where they are taught in very small groups. Lectures and laboratory and practical work are organized by the university and held in university buildings. There are over 10,000 undergraduates and 3,500 post-graduates, about 40% of them are women and some 8% from overseas. As well as teaching, research is of major importance. Since the beginning of the 20th century, more than 60 university members have won Nobel Prizes. University has a huge number of buildings for teaching and research. It has more than 60 specialist subject libraries as well as the university library, which, as a copyright library, is entitled to a copy of every book published in Britain. Examinations are set and degrees are awarded by the university. It allowed women to take the university exams in 1881, but it was not until 1948 that they were awarded degrees.
17.Why is it difficult for visitors to locate Cambridge University?
18. What does the passage tell us about the colleges of Cambridge University?
19. What can be learnt from the passage about the libraries in Cambridge University?
20. What does the passage tell about women students in Cambridge University?
Questions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
17. A) Because there are no signs to direct them.
B) Because no tour guides are available.
C) Because all the buildings in the city look alike.
D) Because the university is everywhere in the city.
18. A) They set their own exams. C) They award their own degrees.
B) They select their own students. D) They organize their own laboratory work.
19. A) Most of them have a long history.
B) Many of them are specialized libraries.
C) They house more books than any other university library.
D) They each have a copy of every book published in Britain.
20. A) Very few of them are engaged in research.
B) They were not awarded degrees until 1948.
C) They have outnumbered male students.
D) They were not treated equally until 1881Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more that they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log hall that time. All in all, however, children’s leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%
"Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents," says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children’s timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and "male breadwinner" households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents.19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)
All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. "Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself," says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.
The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing "free time" watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they’re spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren’t replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let’s face it, who’s got the time?
21. By mentioning "the same time crunch" (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means
A) children have little time to play with their parents
B) children are not taken good care of by their working parents
C) both parents and children suffer from lack of leisure time
D) both parents and children have trouble managing their time
22. According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is
A) quite convincing C) totally groundless
B) partially true D) rather confusing
23. According to the author a child develops better if
A) he has plenty of time reading and studying
B) he is left to play with his peers in his own way
C) he has more time participating in school activities
D) he is free to interact with his working parents
24. The author is concerned about the fact that American kids
A) are engaged in more and more structured activities
B) are increasingly neglected by their working mothers
C) are spending more and more time watching TV
D) are involved less and less in household work
25. We can infer from the passage that
A) extracurricular activities promote children’s intelligence
B) most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off
C) efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful
D) most parents believe reading to be beneficial to children
