Section B
26. A 27. C 28. C 29. B 30. A 31. D 32. A 33. C 34. B 35. C
Passage One
I'd like to share with you today my experience with a new approach to building a house. It's called Envelop Building. Essentially, what it means is that as you are building a house, you try to leave the landscape features on the land, especially the vegetation in the original condition. So what you are not doing is the usual practice of land-scaping. By which I mean literally scraping or cleaning the land of any and all the original plants. Why is the approach called Envelop Building? Because instead of clearing everything away, you let your original landscape elements envelop or surround your house. Let the vegetation physical features, such as hills and slopes or interesting rock formations, constitute a significant part of the character of the building sight. The design of the house should take these features of the property into account. Actually integrating your original wild landscape with a house is not that new. The famous American architect Frank Loid Wright was doing it about 65 years ago. Suppose we are in good company. Envelop Building is not as easy as it sounds though. It's not just that you build your house and leave the land alone. By building, you are already damaging the original landscape. But as architects, we should try to work with the environment, not against it. A creative architect can find ways to incorporate the natural landscape into the overall design. For example, why are the massive boulders on the side of one of the most famous houses used as part of the house foundation?
Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. According to the professor, what does the term "landscaping" refer to?
27. In Envelop Building, what is done with the landscape features of a building sight?
28. Why does the professor mention the architect Frank Loid Wright?
Passage Two
Scientists are fascinated by what they learn from the methods of traditional healers, people who cure patients through means other than prescribing medicines. The question that scientists ask is how traditional healers can actually be successful in their treatments and why they are so popular.
The Ndembu people of Central Africa, for example, believe that illness is often the result of the anger of a relative, friend, or enemy. This emotion, they say, causes a tooth to enter the body of the person who is the target of the anger and to create disease.
When the healer decides which body part contains the evil tooth, he calls together the victim's relatives and friends to watch a ceremony, at the end of which he "removes" it from the patient's throat, arm, leg, stomach, etc. Although the patient and the villagers know what has happened-that the tooth has been hidden inside the healer's mouth the whole time, the patient is often cured.
The Ndembu ceremony is typical of treatments around the world, in which stones, insects, or small sharp objects are "taken out" of sick people. Despite scientific evidence that disproves the effectiveness of such methods, the fact remains that the treatments are often successful, and many villagers prefer to be cured in this way than by a modern physician.
Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
29. Which aspect of traditional healers do scientists find difficult to understand?
30. In view of Ndembu people, what is often the cause of people's illness?
31. What do many villagers think about the healers'methods?
Passage Three
The Gobi Desert in Asia is one of the largest desert areas in the world. It stretches across most of Mongolia and the north of China. It is shut in by mountains to the north, south and west. In summer, it is very hot during the day, but at night the temperature falls steeply. In winter, it is very cold and there are snowstorms.
There is very little water in the Gobi Desert. It rains very little and there are just a few streams and no big rivers at all. Most of the area is bare rock. In summer, a little coarse grass and some thorny bushes grow there. In some places, there is just enough grass to feed a few sheep, horses and camels.
About 1,300 years ago, a young Chinese traveler set out to cross the desert. His name was Hsuan-Tsang and he was just 19 years old. His friends and the guide all turned back. They did not want to risk crossing the desert. So Hsuan-Tsang went on alone. He rode a horse which had crossed the desert many times before.
Hsuan-Tsang tried to follow the tracks of camels and other animals. He was in danger of losing his way. Several times he nearly died of thirst. Once he went for five days without water before he was saved by a sudden shower. Once, he was saved by his horse. It refused to go the way Hsuan-Tsang wanted and took him to a pool of water.
Sixteen years later, Hsuan-Tsang went back to China across the desert.
Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
32. What is the weather like in the Gobi Desert in summer?
33. What do we learn about the Gobi Desert from the passage?
34. How did Hsuan-Tsang manage to find his way in the desert?
35. How old was Hsuan-Tsang when he came back to China across the desert? |
