An unemployed man is desperate to support his family. His wife watches TV all day and his three teenage kids have dropped out of high school to hang around with the local toughs. He applies for a cleaner’s job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test. The human resources manager tells him, “You will be hired at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address so that we can contact you easily. Our system will automatically e-mail you all the forms and advise you when to start and where to report on your first day.” Greatly surprised, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this, the manager replies, “You must understand that to a company like ours that means you virtually do not exist. Without an e-mail address you can hardly expect to be employed by a high tech firm. Good day.”

Unable to believe what he heard, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having $10 in his wallet, he walks past a farmers’ market and sees a stand selling beautiful tomatoes. He buys a crate (柳條箱), carries it to a busy corner and displays the tomatoes. In less than two hours he sells all the tomatoes and makes 100% profit. From that day on, he repeats the tomato business and becomes increasingly successful as time goes on. By the end of the fifth year he owns a fleet of nice trucks and a warehouse. The tomato company has put hundreds of homeless and jobless people to work and the business grossed a million dollars.

Planning for the future, he decides to buy some life insurance. The insurance adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he doesn’t have time to mess with a computer and has no e-mail address, the insurance salesman is surprised, “ No computer? No Internet? Just think where you would be if you’d had all of that five years ago!” “Ha! If I’d had all of that five years ago, I would be sweeping floors at Microsoft and making $5.15 an hour!” the man replies.

1. The man’s kids drop out of school because ______.

   A. they want to hang around with the local toughs

   B. their mother watches TV all day

   C. their father is only a cleaner

   D. their family is very poor

2. The man applies for a cleaner’s job ______.

   A. but he can’t accept it because the pay is too low

   B. and he gets it though the pay is only $5.15 an hour

   C. but he was turned down because he doesn’t have an e-mail address

   D. but he misses the chance because they fail to contact him

3. The man’s tomatoes sell well because ______.

   A. the tomatoes look very beautiful

   B. he has chosen the right place to sell them

   C. many jobless people help him

   D. the tomatoes are contained in beautiful crates

4. From the conversation between the man and the insurance salesman in the last paragraph we can infer that ______.

   A. the man will buy a computer soon

   B. it’s very easy to do tomato business

   C. one does not necessarily have an e-mail address to be successful

   D. the man is not able to buy any life insurance without an e-mail address

Zhang Yineng, a freshman at Hangzhou University, earned his first pot of gold by designing websites for American companies. Zhang never even met the people who hired him. Instead, all the necessary transactions (交易)were done through myTino.com, a Hangzhou based online outsourcing network. Zhang has already earned enough money to pay for two semesters of university tuition.

Zhang is one of the growing number of college students tasting the fruit of globalization. They search for outsourcing projects in fields like programming, art design, translating and writing from both Western and domestic businesses.

This way of making money is becoming common among college students with free time, especially among those who are tech-savvy (有技術(shù)的). The payment for such work is rather high, partly because the tasks demand more skills than many other “traditional” part-time jobs do. For instance, creating a website for foreign companies pays $2,000 to $5,000, which is rather high.

The good money is just one benefit. These outsourcing jobs “can also help us to use the knowledge we gained in university,” said Zhang. “Through the tasks assigned by the companies, I can easily find the key hot spots in my field, and what abilities I am lacking. By doing the tasks, I can improve my skills and gain experience.”

1. Zhang Yineng earned his first pot of gold by working for ______.

   A. myTino.com             B. an online outsourcing network

   C. American websites        D. American companies

2. Doing outsourcing jobs, the students ______.

   A. are paid 2,000 to 5,000

   B. get the chance to meet their bosses

   C. learn skills in many fields

   D. are enjoying the advantages of globalization

3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as one of the benefits of outsourcing jobs?

   A. Making good money.          B. Making better use of their free time.

   C. Finding hot spots in their fields.  D. Gaining experience

4. The writer wrote this passage ______.

   A. to teach college students how to earn their first pot of gold

   B. to introduce to us a new way through which students do part-time jobs

   C. to advertise for an on-line outsourcing network

   D. to attract more students to outsourcing jobs.

Live the ‘American Dream’

What is it: Work & Travel USA

Who are qualified: Full-time college students, above 18 years old.

About the program: Application for the 2009 Work & Travel USA program has just started. It’s an 8-16 week summer program for college students to work and travel in the US. Employers include Boeing, Hilton Hotel and 7-Eleven. For next summer, about 3,500 positions are open to Chinese Students. Applicants must pass a language test and sometimes an interview, and pay a registration fee to join the program.

                 (source: www. cultureexchange.org)

Hundreds needed by Volkswagen

What is it: Shanghai Volkswagen jobs.

Who are qualified: College students graduating in 2009

About it: Shanghai VW offers over 300 positions from engineering to marketing to college students graduating in 2009. Applicants should have an excellent academic record, CET-6 or the same level language certificate in German, and good computer skills. Campus talks will take place in Shanghai, Changchun, Harbin, Wuhan, Changsha, Nanjing, Beijing and Xi’an from October.

                      (source: campus.chinahr.com/2009/pages/csvw)

Xiaonei looking for graduates

What is it: Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI) internships(實習(xí))

What are qualified: College juniors and first-year post graduate students

About it: OPI is now offering internship positions for test-engineer, development-engineer and assistant to the director of corporate culture. For engineering positions, candidates should major in computer science or a related field, have communication ability and be familiar with various development languages. For assistant to the director positions, candidates should be adept(拿手的) in document writing, activities organizing and office software.

                       (source: campus.xiaonei.com)

1. These advertisements are most probably ______.

   A. advertisements on the Internet intended for the general public to read

   B. advertisements in a newspaper intended for large companies to read

   C. advertisements on the Internet intended for college student to read

   D. advertisements in a newspaper intended for college students to read

2. According to the first advertisement ______.

   A. the program offers an opportunity to college students to work in large American companies as well as to travel in America

   B. the applicants are required to have college degrees and pay a registration fee

   C. applicants who can not pass the language test must go through an interview

   D. the program must be applied for during the summer of 2009

3. The opportunity of ______ is offered only to college students graduating in 2009.

   A. working in large companies in America

   B. traveling in America

   C. positions in VW

   D. OPI internship

In the age of reality television, success isn’t the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.

Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled “The True Idol” on April 6.

The idol (偶像) is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version (改寫本) of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3", on January 27. The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act. Hung’s response? “I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all.” That’s interesting, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: the off-key singing, the blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high, the terrible dancing, the hips jerking (搖擺) to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad.

But, it was this very bad act that sold well.

Marc Juries, president of Fuse, explained it this way: “Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America.”

Whatever it is, for the moment it’s big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.

So, what does Hung think of this?

“There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean.”

Now he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour (魅力) or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn’t been easy.

1．What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly.

B．Hung's performance attracted the public eye.

C．How an unsuccessful person became famous.

D．Success sometimes does not require hard work.

2．Hung was popular in America for all the following reasons EXCEPT ________

A．his shirt and pants　　　　    B．his off-key singing

C．his jerking hips　　　　　     D．his excellent version

3．What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 6 refer to?

A．William Hung.　　　　　      B．Hung's bad performance.

C．Hung’s website.　　　　      D．The public’s opinion.

4．Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?

a．The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung.

b．The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest.

c．Hung became popular among Americans.

d．Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best.

e. Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet.

A．d, b, e, c, a        B．a(chǎn), c, d．b, e　     C．a(chǎn), d, b, c, e　   D．d, b, a, e, c

5．Why was Hung able to win the hearts of America?

A．His success was based on luck rather than his own hard work.

B．He attracted people’s attention and won wide praise in the contest.

C．He was good-looking in his pants and shirt though he didn’t sing well.

D．In the contest he did what every one of us is happy to do in daily life.

Over the past several decades, the promise of the “car of tomorrow” has remained unfulfilled, while the problems it was supposed to solve have only intensified (加劇). The average price of a gallon of gas is higher than at any time since the early 1980s. The Middle East seems more unstable than ever. And even climate experts are starting to admit that the carbon we’re pumping into the atmosphere might have disastrous consequences. To these circumstances, automakers have responded with a fleet of cars that averages 21 miles per gallon, about four miles per gallon worse than the Model T.

Yet hope is coming faster than that hydrogen economy you’ve been hearing about. Several small companies are developing new engine technologies and advanced automotive designs that promise to deliver 100 miles from a single gallon of gas. The proposals run from the simple—reduce weight, improve aerodynamics（空氣動力）—to the incredible (one company wants to borrow a few tricks from jet engines).

The race should heat up further when the X Prize Foundation—the group that kick-started the space-tourism industry with its $10-million competition to produce a reusable private spacecraft—announces in the next few months a competition for the first car to break 100 miles per gallon and sell a yet-to-be-decided number of units. The prize money hadn’t been finalized at press time, but X Prize officials are discussing figures in the $25-million range as a proper amount. They hope the prize will urge people to completely reconsider what a car should look like and how it should function. “We need a paradigm shift,” says Mark Goodstein, the executive director for the automotive X Prize. “We need to change the way people think about automobiles.”

1. From the passage we can see that the key to developing the “car of tomorrow” is that ______.

A.      the promise has remain unfulfilled

B.      the Middle East seems more unstable than ever

C.      mileage(英里數(shù)) for per gallon of gas should be increased

D.     a prize should be offered for the first car to break 100 miles per gallon

2. Following this passage which of the following topics is most probably to be discussed?

A.      Who will win the prize?

B.      What will the “car of tomorrow” be like?

C.      Different opinions on the “car of tomorrow”

D.     How to use less fuel?

3. By saying “To these circumstances, automakers have responded with a fleet of cars that averages 21 miles per gallon, about four miles per gallon worse than the Model T.” at the end of paragraph one the writer ______.

A.      is happy about the cars people use today

B.      is making a comparison between the present cars and Model T.

C.      means the concern about the atmosphere is unreasonable

D.     means the problem of using too much gas remains unsettled

4. Which of the following serves as an explanation of “We need a paradigm shift” in the last paragraph?

A.      We need to change the way people think about automobiles.

B.      We need people to reconsider how automobiles should function.

C.      We need people to reconsider what a car should look like.

D.     We need to change the cars completely so that they will look different.

完成對話。

W: Next, please.

M: Hi, I bought this DVD player here last Saturday,   1  .

W: What’s the matter with it?

M: Well, several things. First of all,   2  .

W: Did you put the batteries in it?

M: Yes, of course, but it still didn’t work.   3  . It also doesn’t fast forward when I am playing a DVD.

W: Well,   4  . I have never seen this with any of the models made by this brand. Do you want to change it or return it?

M:   5  .

W: Okay, do you have the receipt?

M: Yes, here it is.

A.      the remote (遙控器) doesn’t work

B.      I’d like to return it

C.      I couldn’t change any of the functions on the display

D.     but it’s not working properly

E.      I’m sure that it’s just a problem with this player

F.      It’s nothing good

G.     It’s up to you

1. The thief ______ (承認) to stealing on the court.

2. Shi Qinghua provides food, shelter and education for those homeless kids at his own ______(花費)

3.Slaves worked on the farms of the ______ (南方的) states before the American Civil War.

4. Winning the big prize is ______(超越) his wildest dreams. 

5. The apartment building is ______(裝備) with a heating system.

6.The lady looks much younger that she ______ (實際上) is.

7.______ (歐式的) football is played in more than 80 countries.

8.It’s still not decided ______ (是否) the sports meeting will be put off.

9.In the north of China, ______ (土豆) are widely planted.

10. Hope schools were built so that poor children can ______ (接受)good education.

此題要求改正所給短文中的錯誤。對標有題號的每一行做出判斷；

如無錯誤，在該行右邊橫線上畫一個勾（√）；如有錯誤（每行只有一個錯誤），則按下列情況改正：該行多一個詞：把多余的詞用斜線（\）劃掉，在該行右邊橫線上寫出該詞，并也用斜線劃掉。

此行缺一個詞：在缺詞處加一個漏字符號（∧），在該行右邊橫線上寫出該加的詞。

此行錯一個詞：在錯的詞下劃一橫線，在該行右邊橫線上寫出改正后的詞。

注意：原行沒有錯的不要改。

As the economy of China has been developed very fast, more              1.    ______

and more families are now rich enough to have their own cars.

Cars do benefit the families as well the society in many ways.                        2.    ______

With a car, it is convenient for the family members to travel

to and from work. They can also drive to the countryside on the                            3.    ______

weekends. At the same time, the development of motor industry                     4.    ______

will sure give a push to many other related industries,                               5.    ______

it is obviously beneficial to the social economy.                                          6.    ______

In the other hand, the boom of private cars is also causing traffic                   7.    ______

and environmental problems. Waste gas from cars are causing                       8.    ______

serious pollution to the air, which do great harm to people’s health.                 9.    ______

With increasing number of cars on the roads, the traffic has become                     10.   ______

very heavy.

—Jack, what do you think of the event which not only promoted        of world hunger, but raised a lot of money to help these poor children?

—That’s great.

A．contribution          B．direction          C．a(chǎn)wareness          D．loneliness

At first           it looked like a simple accident, but later the police became doubtful.

A．sight                   B．view                   C．look                    D．glimpse