Students are being forced to take additional exams to get into leading universities because good A-levels do not always indicate the brightest candidates.
Sixth-formers applying to courses such as medicine and law are being asked to sit American-style aptitude（智能）tests, which are designed to assess（評(píng)價(jià)）thinking skills, among fears that too many A-level candidates are getting top grades. Last year, almost one in six students applying to universities such as Oxford and Cambridge from independent schools had to sit additional test to secure a place.
Head teachers criticized the move, which they said would pile more pressure on schools and students. But universities insisted that the reforms were unavoidable, because A-level exams were no longer an accurate barometer（標(biāo)準(zhǔn)）of ability.
In 1986, 40 percent of students starting at Oxford achieved straight. As at A-level, Mike Nicholson, its admissions director, said that this year almost every candidate offered a place would get perfect grades. It meant the university had to stage additional test to identify the most able candidates. “The ability to achieve three A grades is no longer the end-point in the admissions process,” he said. “The potential to achieved three A grades will allow them to enter the race for a place.”
Oxford is not the only university turning to aptitude tests. At Cambridge, the number of students taking the university’s Thinking Skills Assessment shot up 26 percent to more than 3,000. A survey of 16,830 sixth formers applying to higher education from private schools last year showed that 2,860 had to sit at least one exam.
Earlier this year, the National Foundation for Educational Research recommended that most sixth formers should sit SAT tests — a standard reasoning exam widely used in American colleges —to make it easier to pick out the best candidates.
5．What is the attitude of head teachers to the reform?
A. Approving.               B. Doubtful.          C. Opposed.           D. Neutral（中立的）
6．Which British university first started to use aptitude tests to pick out the best candidates?
A. Harvard.                  B. Oxford.             C. Cambridge.              D. Washington D.C.
7．What can we know about the A-level system?
A. It can indicate the brightest candidates.
B. It was designed to assess students’ thinking abilities.
C. It is longer an accurate way to assess students’ abilities.
D. It was recommended by the National Foundation for Educational Research.
8．What can we infer from the passage?
A. The reform is more popular in American colleges than in British ones.
B. The reform will be applied by all universities in the future.
C. Universities used to depend on the A-level system to choose the best students.
D. Passing additional tests will allow the student to enter Oxford, regardless of whether he or she gets As.
9．What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to get into leading universities.
B. The disadvantages of the A-level system.
C. Different ways to identify students’ abilities.
D. Universities using extra exams to choose students.

Everyone agrees that it’s necessary to reduce carbon emissions （排放物） around the world. There is less agreement over exactly how nations should go about achieving a more carbon - free planet. Thus, the environmental equivalent: cap – and – trade carbon emissions, or place a carbon tax on all users?
With cap – and – trade programs, governments limit the level of carbon produced by an industry. Companies that hold their emissions below the cap can sell their remaining allowance on a carbon market, while companies that go beyond their limit must purchase credits on that market. Carbon taxes are more straightforward: a set tax rate is placed on the consumption of carbon with the idea that raising the price will encourage industries and individuals to consume less. At the moment, cap – and – trade has the upper hand, but doesn’t defeat the tax just yet.
Supporters of the tax argue that a cap – and – trade system would be too difficult to administer – and too easily gamed by industries looking to sidestep emissions caps. Cap – and – trade advocates contradict that like all other flat taxes, a carbon collection would relatively burden lower – income families, who spend a greater percentage of their income on energy than rich households.
So which system will have a larger effect on carbon consumption? A 10% carbon tax might reduce the demand for carbon about 5 % or less, according to an analysis by the Carbon Tax Center, an environmental advocacy group. That may not be enough. Businesses and governments haven’t figured out how the two competing systems can work together, but in the end, the world may need both.
1. The passage focuses on_________.
A. programs of collecting taxes
B. systems of reducing carbon emissions
C. reasons for reducing carbon emissions
D. contradictions between the two systems
2. According to the cap – and – trade program, companies_________ .
A. are forbidden to produce carbon emissions
B. are allocated the same amount of carbon consumption
C. can sell their remaining allowance within their limits
D. can sell the extra amount of carbon at a higher price
3. Carbon taxes work by _________.
A. burdening well – off families
B. encouraging industries to consume carbon
C. raising the price for carbon consumption
D. limiting the carbon consumption of industries only
4. The underlined word “cap” in the second paragraph most likely refers to_________.
A. limit                  B. credit                C. level                  D. rate
5. We can learn from the passage_________ .
A. carbon taxes are difficult to carry out
B. cap – and – trade plays a greater role at present
C. cap – and – trade will be preferable in the future
D. carbon taxes will be preferable in the future

Learning another language isn't easy, but most people can learn a second language well if they’re willing to put in the necessary time. Here are some practical suggestions for studying effectively, overcoming anxiety, and learning the grammar and skills necessary for success in foreign language classes.
Study every day
Language learning is cumulative: you cannot put it off until the weekend. Study one or two hours for every class hour if you want a good mark.
Distribute your study time in 15 to 30 minutes period throughout the day
Study a different task each time: vocabulary now, grammar next, etc. Get an overview during the first half hour: spend 10 minutes reviewing dialog, 10 minutes learning new vocabulary, 10 minutes learning new grammar... So you'll at least have looked at it all. About 80~of your study time should be spent on recitation or practice.
Attend and participate in every class—even if you aren't well prepared
Class time is your best opportunity to practice, learn the grammar and vocabulary outside of class in order to make full use of the class time. Spend a few minutes "warming up" before each class by speaking or reading the language.
Make yourself comfortable in the classroom
Get to know your classmates, so you'll feel you’re among friends. Visit your teacher during office hours to get aquainted(熟悉的)：explain your goals and fears about the course to your teacher.
Learn grammar if you don't already know it
Grammar is the skeleton(骨架) and the basic structure of a language, and you must learn it.
Practice for tests by doing what you'll have to do on the test
If the test will require you to write, then study by writing--including spelling and accents. If you're asked to listen, practice listening. Ask for practice questions and make up your own test questions. Try to invent changes on patterns and forms. Over learning is also required in tests preparation：study beyond the paints of recognition to mastery.
Develop a good attitude
Have a clear personal reason for taking the class. Set personal goals for what you want to learn. Leave perfectionism at the door; give yourself permission to make mistakes and learn from them.
16. What does the underlined word "cumulative" in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A. process of gaining knowledge or skill by doing and seeing things
B. having to do with comparison
C. having ability to do what is needed
D. increasing in amount by one addition after another
17. A good learner is one who ________ according to the passage.
A. never permits himself to make mistakes
B. can learn something from the mistakes he makes
C. follows the goals that other persons set for themselves
D. can get to know his classmates and doesn't take his teachers' advice
18. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Tips on studying a foreign language. 
B. Advice on how to learn grammar.
C. Suggestions for studying vocabulary effectively.     
D. How to make yourself comfortable in the classroom.

Reading is the key to school success and, like any skill, it takes practice. A child learns to walk by practising until he no longer has to think about how to put one foot in front of the other. A great athlete practises until he can play quickly, accurately, without thinking. Tennis players call that ”being in the zone.” Educators call it “automaticity”.
A child learns to read by sounding out the letters and decoding the words. With practice, he stumbles less and less, reading by the phrase. With automaticity, he doesn’t have to think about decoding the words, so he can concentrate on the meaning of the text.
It can begin as early as first grade. In a recent study of children in Illinois Schools, Alan Rossman of Northwestern University found automatic readers in the first grade who were reading almost three times as fast as the other children and scoring twice as high on comprehension tests. At fifth grade, the automatic readers were reading twice as fast as the others, and still outscoring them on accuracy, comprehension and vocabulary.
“It’s not I.Q. but the amount of time a child spends reading that is the key to automaticity,” according to Rossman. Any child who spends at least 3.5 to 4 hours a week reading books, magazines or newspapers will in all likelihood reach automaticity. At home, where the average child spends 25 hours a week watching television, it can happen by turning off the set just one night in favor of reading.
You can test your child by giving him a paragraph or two to read aloud—something unfamiliar but appropriate to his age. If he reads aloud with expressions, with a sense of the meaning of the sentences, he probably is an automatic reader. If he reads haltingly, one word at a time, without expression or meaning, he needs more practice.
13．The first paragraph tells us            .
A．what automaticity is                    B．how accuracy is acquired
C．how a child learns to walk               D．how an athlete is trained
14．The Illinois study shows that the automatic reader’s high speed         .
A．costs him a lot of work            B．a(chǎn)ffects his comprehension
C．leads to his future success         D．doesn’t affect his comprehension
15．A bright child         .
A．a(chǎn)lso needs practice to be an automatic reader
B．a(chǎn)lways achieves great success in comprehension tests
C．becomes an automatic reader after learning how to read
D．is a born automatic reader
16．The main idea of the passage is           .
A．how to score high on comprehension tests
B．reading is the key to school success
C．how to test your child’s reading ability
D．a(chǎn)utomaticity is important for efficient reading

Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child --- or even an animal, such as a pigeon --- can learn to recognize faces. We all take this ability for granted. We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone’s personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others.
Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone’s personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a nice face looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you were asked to describe a nice person, you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth.
There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people’s behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing, or typing his personality.
Bookworms, conservatives（保守派）, military（軍人或軍事的）types --- people are described with such terms. People have always tried to type each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain’s or the hero’s role. In fact, the words “person” and “personality” come from the Latin persona, meaning mask. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the good guys from the bad guys because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.
6.The passage tells the readers ______.
A. how to describe people’s faces
B. how to describe people’s personality
C. how to differ good persons from bad ones
D. how to describe people both inward and outward
7. What is the possible role of the writer?
A. Psychologist     B. Behaviorist    C. Writer    D. Sociologist
8. Which of the following is incorrect?
A. Different people may have different personalities.
B. People differ from each in appearance.
C. People can describe all the features of others.
D. People can learn to recognize faces.
9. It is easier to describe a person’s personality in words than his face because ______.
A. a person’s face is more complex than his personality
B. a person’s personality is easily distinguished
C. people’s personalities are very alike
D. many words are available when people try to describe one’s personality
10. People classify a person into certain type according to ______.
A. his way of acting and thinking
B. his way of speaking and behaving
C. his learning and behavior
D. his physical appearance and his personality

People and the sources of air pollution are found in the same places. This means that cities with large populations have the biggest problem of dirty air. Air pollution is caused by many different things. A major source of air pollution is the gas fumes from cars. Statistics show that 93 percent of all auto trips are within cities. Another major source of dirty air is the burning of coal and oil for energy. This energy is needed to make electricity. Of course, much more electricity is used in the city than in the country.
On the average, we throw away more trash and garbage than the year before. The burning of garbage contributes to air pollution. Many major industries are also responsible for the dirty air in the around cities. The fumes from iron, steel, chemical, and petroleum production add particles to the air.
The effects of air pollution range from mild headaches to death. The levels of pollution found in heavy for traffic may cause headaches for loss of clear vision. Wherever coal and oil are used for fuel, fumes may kill trees and plants and cause metal to corrode. In some of the larger cities, these fumes endanger the live of human beings by contributing to lung diseases and causing early death.
15．The key point of the passage is that _________.
A. the cause of air pollution is people
B. the causes and the effects of air pollution are both found in cities
C. the effects of air pollution range from headaches to death
D. air pollution is caused by dirty air
16．What is the purpose of this passage?
A. to persuade people to stop polluting the air
B. to tell the causes of air pollution
C. to tell why cities are bad places to live
D. to describe why cities are bad places to live
17. Why is air pollution more grave in the city than in the country?
A. Because there larger populations in cities.
B. Because the air in the city is dirty.
C. Because there are more cars in the city.
D. Because there are much more gas fumes from cars and burning of coal and oil for energy  
in the city than in the country.
18．The fumes from coal and oil may cause metal ______.
A. to turn black                              B. to become rusty            
C. to corrode                            D. to twist
19. In larger cities, the fumes from coal and oil may contribute to ___________.
A. heart disease                      B. lung diseases   
C. loss of clear vision              D. serious headache

The Migration of Birds
Here is a scientific experiment on the homing of birds, the fact of which are quite certain. A few years ago seven swallows were caught near their nests at Bremen in Germany. They were marked with a red dye on some of their white feathers, so that they could easily been seen. Then they were taken by plane to Croydon, near London. This is a distance of 400 miles.
Then the seven swallows were set free at Croydon. Five of them flew back to their nests at Bremen. How did the birds find their way on that long journey, which they had never made before? That is the great puzzle. It is no good saying that the swallows have a sense of direction. These are just words and explain nothing. We want to know exactly what senses the animals use to find their way, how they know in which direction to go until they can see familiar landmarks. Unfortunately practically no scientific experiments have yet been made on this question.
Perhaps migrating birds are the greatest mystery of all. Swallows leave England in August and September, and they fly to Africa, where they stay during our winter. The swallows return to England in the late summer for the south. A lot has been found about the journeys of migrating birds by marking the birds with aluminum rings put on one leg. An address and a number is put on the ring.
Swallows from England go as far as South Africa and as many as fourteen birds, marked with rings in England, have been caught again in South Africa. From England to South Africa is a journey of 6,000 miles. And the birds not only return from Africa to England next spring, but often they come back to the nests in the very same house where they nested the year before.
17．The seven swallows were marked on some of their feathers because       .
A．they would be taken away by plane
B．they would be free in London
C．Croydon was 400 miles away
D．they could easily be seen for the red colour
18．Which of the following is true?       .
A．Seientists have found why the animals can see their nests.
B．No one knows why the swallows can fly back to their familiar landmarks.
C．It’s very simple that the birds use sense of direction.
D．Many experiments have been made on how birds can fly their way home
19．Swallows like to spend ”our winter” in        .
A．England      B．London        C．Africa       D．Germany
20．When do the birds return from South Africa to England every year?
A．summer        B．spring        C．winter         D．Both A and B

Can trees talk? Yes — but not in words. Scientists have reason to believe that trees do
communicate with each other. Not long ago, researchers learned some surprising things. First a willow tree attacked in the woods by caterpillars（毛毛蟲(chóng)）changed the chemistry of its leaves and made them taste so terrible that they got tired of the leaves and stopped eating them. Then even more astonishing, the tree sent out a special vapor—a signal causing its neighbors to change the chemistry of their own leaves and make them less tasty.
Communication, of course, does not need to be in words. We can talk each other by smiling, raising our shoulders and moving our hands. We know that birds and animals use a whole vocabulary of songs, sounds, and movements. Bees dance their signals, flying in certain patterns that tell other bees where to find nectar for honey. So why shouldn’t trees have ways of sending messages?
1．It can be inferred from the passage that caterpillars do not feed on leaves that          .
A．have an unpleasant taste
B．a(chǎn)re lying on the ground
C．have an unfamiliar shape
D．bees don’t like
2．According to the passage, the willow tree was able to communicate with each other by       .
A．waving its branches              B．giving off a special vapor
C．dropping its leaves               D．changing the color of its trunk
3．According to the passage, bees communicate by        .
A．touching one another             B．smiling one another
C．making special movement         D．making unusual sound
4．The author believes that the incident described in the passage         .
A．cannot be taken seriously          B．seems completely reasonable
C．should no longer be permitted      D．must be checked more thorough

　　The plan: turn Mars into a blue world with streams and green fields, and then fill it with creatures (生物) from the earth. This idea may sound like something from a science fiction (科幻小說(shuō)), but it is actually being taken seriously by many researchers.
　　This suggested future for the “red planet” will be the main topic for discussion at an international conference hosted by NASA (美國(guó)宇航局) this week. Leading researchers as well as science fiction writers will attend the event. It comes as NASA is preparing a multi?billion?dollar Mars research programme. “Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction,”said Dr Michael Meyer, NASA’s senior scientist for astrobiology (太空生物學(xué)). “Now, with scientists exploring the reality, we can ask what are the real possibilities of changing Mars.”
Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money would be needed to achieve this goal.
　　But many experts are shocked by the idea. “We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed and now we are talking about ruining another planet,” said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK. Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they will find Martian life forms. Europe and America’s robot explorers have found proof that water, mixed with soil, exists in large amounts on the planet.
In addition, two different groups of scientists announced on March 28 that they had found signs of methane (甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere (大氣). The gas is a waste product of living creatures and could be produced by microbes (微生物) living in the red planet’s soil.
　　But scientists such as Dr Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be put in danger by the little earth project. “Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are talking about carrying out projects that would destroy all these native lifeforms, all the strange microbes that we hope to find buried in the soil,” said Dr Pratt. This view is shared by Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum, London. “We cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for.” she said， “This is just wrong.”
5. The passage is about________.
A. a plan turning Mars into a little earth
B. the necessity of changing Mars
C. Mars supporting life
D. finding water in the Mars
6. Which of the following is NOT the reason why some scientists are against the plan?
A. The project would wipe out all the native lifeforms on the Mars.
B. The project will cost too much money and work.
C. We would ruin Mars.
D. We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed. 
7. We can infer from the passage that________.
A. water is a crucial factor for life
B. the project will have little effect on the native lifeforms supposed to live on the Mars
C. Monica Grady is in favour of carrying out the little earth project
D. the idea turning Mars into a little earth is nothing but a science fiction
8. Which of the following supports the conclusion of microbes living in the Mars’s soil?
A. Scientists found liquid water in the Mars.
B. Scientists found signs of methane in the Martian atmosphere.
C. Scientists found a lot of good soil on the Mars.
D. Scientists found some creatures living on the Mars.

Who has deprived the children's happiness of learning???  
Children are born with a natural desire of learning. They are curios and concerned about   36  around them. They are   37  to learn anything that amazes them. They have so many   38   that they keep on asking. They can bore the   39  all day long with many   40  questions which they will never feel bored with. Why? This is because learning is their   41   , perhaps an instinct of human beings. They just can't help. But   42   , they feel bored with learning, especially when learning becomes a boring   43   for them, especially after school has become a    44  of their life, especially when they have to   45   teachers who tell them again and again to   46    to recite and memorize things they don't want to learn, and especially  47    they realize school is not what they once    48   to be but something that, according to their parents, they must rely on in order to   49  a good fame or a good job or a good future. That is to say, learning has become a   50  , which they are forced or   51   to face. So it is the teachers and parents who have thrown the heavy   52  on the children. And meanwhile, the competitive society is also to blame. The children have been   53   of their pleasure and happiness that they could have enjoyed from the natural learning. 
Therefore, my   54  to the students’ learning is that they   55   enjoy learning, enjoy the pleasure that they could feel from learning itself. Find back the long lost desire and curiosity of learning in their childhood.
36．A．nothing                  B．a(chǎn)nything                 C．everything             D．something
37．A．curious                  B．proud                    C．nervous                 D．eager
38．A．questions                 B．reactions                 C．problems                D．troubles
39．A．students            B．a(chǎn)dults                   C．parents                  D．teachers
40．A．funny                     B．boring                  C．bored                    D．practical
41．A．a(chǎn)bility                    B．excuse                    C．characteristic           D．nature
42．A．gradually               B．eventually               C．however                 D．therefore
43．A．duty                         B．exercise                C．task                      D．remark  
44．A．pleasure                  B．part                      C．occasion                D．success
45．A．face                  B．follow                    C．escape                    D．imitate
46．A．repeat                   B．copy                       C．report                     D．reply
47．A．before                    B．since                      C．a(chǎn)fter                       D．when
48．A．forbidden           B．a(chǎn)ttracted                C．intended                 D．expected
49．A．require                  B．a(chǎn)chieve                 C．earn                      D．indicate
50．A．promise                B．service                  C．must                     D．choice
51．A．pleased                  B．recommended        C．obliged                 D．experienced
52．A．burden                  B．confidence              C．difficulty                D．challenge
53．A．informed                 B．deprived             C．a(chǎn)ccused                  D．a(chǎn)pproved
54．A．Encouragement    B．persuation              C．suggestion             D．decision
55．A．must               B．should                  C．might                     D．could