some friends had lost their lives
her neighborhood was destroyed
her school had moved to Brooklyn
the elderly were free from suffering

Question: When Natalie returned to Rockaway after the hurricane ,she found _ .

Surviving Hurricane Sandy
Natalie Doan,14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the waves from her house. "It's the ocean that makes Rockaway so special," she says.
On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned fierce. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie's family escaped to Brooklyn shortly before the city's bridges closed.
When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie's friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, people were suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie's school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.
In the following few days, the men and women helping Rockaway recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others rebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.
"My mom tells me that I can't control what happens to me," Natalie says. "but I can always choose how I deal with it."
Natalie's choice was to help.
She created a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to halp. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collecting when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick's collection was replaced.
In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-need supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the White House and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.
Today, the scarsof destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. "I can't imagine living anywhere but Rockaway," Natalie declares. "My neighborhood will be back, even stronger than before."


The people trapped in high_rise buildings

The volunteers donating money to suevivors

Local teenagers bringing clothing to elderly people

Question: According to paragraph4,who inspired Natalie most?


She built an information sharing platform

Question: How did Natalie help the survivors?


Little people can make a big difference
A friend in need is a friend indeed
East or west,home is best
Technology is power

Question: What does the story intend to tell us?


head straight for the center of the storm

collect information about a coming storm

Question: For storm chasing, the first thing storm chasers do is to.

When a storm is coming, most people leave the area as quickly ad possible and head for safety. But there are a few people who will get into their cars and go straight for the center of the storm. These people are willing to risk(…)being killed by floods or 100-kilometer-an-hour winds for the excitement of watching the storm close up.
"Storm chasing" is becoming an increasingly popular hobby, especially in the Midwest of the United States, where there are frepuent storms between March and July. A storm chaser begins the day by checking the Internet for the latest weather reports, and then drives up to 1,000 kilometers to where the storm will be and wits for it to develop.
Although anyone can do it , storm chasing is extremely dangerous. The power of a big storm can throw a cow into the air or destroy a whole house in seconds. Storm chasers are also often hurt in accidents caused by driving in a heavy rain. If you are a beginner, it is much safer to join a group for storm-chasing vacations during the storm season.
Even then, storm chasing is not all adventure and excitement. "Storm chasing is 95% driving," says Daniel Lynch, who spends most of his summer storm-chasing. "Sometimes you can sit around for hours waiting for something to happen, and all you get is blue sky and a few light showers."
However, for storm chasers, it is all worth it. "When you get close to a storm, it is the most exciting sight you will ever see in your life," says Jasper Morley. "Every storm is an example of the power of nature, It is the greatest show on Earth."


not to drive in a heavy rain
to do it in an organized way
not to get too close to a storm
to spend more time on it in summer

Question: Beginners of storm chasing are advised.


a storm presents the greatest show on Earth

Question: By saying "it is all worth it" in the last paragraph, the author means that.


Sometimes storm chasers get nothing but disappointment

Many storm chasers get killed in the storms.

Storm chasing is becoming popular around the world/

Storm chasing is only fit for young people.

Question: What can we learn from the text?


The confidence in intellectual pursuits.

Question: What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?

Americans today don't place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education -- not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren't difficult to find.
"Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual," says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance."
Ravitch's latest book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society."
"Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer-Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized -- going to school and learning to read -- so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country's educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."


undervaluing intellect
favoring intellectualism
supporting school reform
suppressing native intelligence

Question: We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of 	.


Question: The views of Ravitch and Emerson on schooling are 	.


a pioneer of education reform
an opponent of intellectualism
a scholar in favor of intellect
an advocate of regular schooling

Question: Emerson, according to the text, is probably 	.


It is second to intelligence.
It evolves from common sense.
It is to be pursued.
It underlies power.

Question: What does the author think of intellect?


is splendidly decorated
has pleasant smells of kabobs
is crowded with dining tables
looks like a common restaurant

Question: When first entering the restaurant, one can find that it _ .

When first entered, Vanak Restaurant does not look like much of a restaurant, but once the pleasant smells of kabobhit the senses, you are incapable of calling it anything less.
Owned by a local couple, this Persian restaurant has an inviting, homelike atmosphere that many restaurants lack.
The space is small with only a few dining tables and nearly no decoration, but the environment is truly charming.
Lying in a hardly noticeable street corner, the restaurant still attracts all customers, especially those experienced in the delights of Middle Eastern cooking.
A common sight is that of old Persian men sitting in the corner talking loudly about world topics, watching news events on TV, drinking a black tea known as Persian chai, an reading local Persian newspapers all the while trying to finish off their plates piled with food.
The variety of food at the restaurant is limited, but the amount of each dish is fairly large. Most of the meals can serve two people and are under $10, so not only is it affordable but practical as well.
The food, especially appeals to health-conscious eaters because each dish is very healthy, made with limited fat and oil and served straight off the grill .
The main dish that the restaurant is popular for is its kabobs, which are different style of grilled meat.
One delicious and extremely healthy dish is the Joojeh Kabob, which is made of grille chicken pieces served with cither rice or bread. Another great kabob is the Cbelo Kabob, kabob consisting of grilled beef.
Although the restaurant is small, the atmosphere and the food is delicious. It is a place that should not be overlooked.


Watching news events on TV.
Drinking a kind of black coffee.
Reading local English newspapers.
Discussing world topics in low voices.

Question: What activity is also mentioned apart from dining in the restaurant?


is served in small amounts
is rather expensive
is rich in variety
is very healthy

Question: The food of the restaurant _ .


Question: What is the dish Joojeh Kabob mainly made of?


occupies a large space
owns a favorable location
is popular for its special food
has a quiet environment inside

Question: It can be inferred from the passage that the restaurant _ .


will remain the same
will slow down
will speed up
can not be predicted

Question: According to the writer, the rate of change in technology _ .

Hardly a week goes by without some advance in technology that would have seemed incredible 50 years ago. And we can expect the rate of change to accelerate rather than slow down within our lifetime. The developments in technology are bound to have a dramatic effect on the future of work. By 2010, new technology will have revolutionized communications. People will be transmitting messages down telephone lines that previously would have been sent by post. Not only postmen but also clerks and secretaries will vanish in a paper-free society. All the routine tasks they perform will be carried on a tiny silicon chip so that they will be as obsolete as the horse and cart after the invention of the motorcar. One change will make thousands, if not millions, redundant.
Even people in traditional professions, where expert knowledge has been the key, are unlikely to escape the effects of new technology. Instead of going to a solicitor, you might go to a computer that is programmed with all the most up-to-date legal information. Doctors, too, will find that an electronic competitor will be able to carry out a much quicker and more accurate diagnosis and recommend more efficient courses oftreatment. In education, teachers will be largely replaced by teaching machines far more knowledgeable than any human being. Most learning will take place in the home via video conferencing. Children will still go to school though, until another place is created where they can make friends and develop social skills.


the present postal system will have disappeared

the postmen will have been replaced by silicon chip.

Question: The writer expects that by 2020 new technology will have revolutionized communications and  _


the routine tasks performed by the postmen

Question: The word " they"  (Line 6, Para. 1) refers to  _ .


professionals won't be affected by new technology

doctor won't be as efficient by the postmen

Question: From the second paragraph, we can infer that  _


people should get prepared for the future

there exists no real threat of unemployment

the advance of technology is not desirable

Question: In the writer's view,  _ .


Betty was talkative.
Betty was an interrupter.
Betty did not take her turn.
Betty paid no attention to Sara.

Question: What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?

Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there's no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I'm finished or fail to take your turn when I'm finished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping . And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in--and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That's why slight differences in conversational style--tiny little things like microseconds of pause-can have a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems---even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.


Americans.
Israelis.
The British.
The Finns.

Question: According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?


communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing

women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US

one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes

one should receive training to build up one's confidence

Question: We can learn from the passage that  _ .


Those who often take exercise.
Those who often watch television.
Those who often have meals at home.
Those who often walk to school.

Question: According to the text, what kind of children may eat more unhealthy food?

Many facts suggest that children are overweight and the situation is getting worse, according to the doctors. I feel there are a number of reasons for this.
Some people blame the fact that we are surrounded  by shops selling unhealthy, fatty foods, such as fried chicken and ice cream, at low prices. This has turned out a whole generation of grown-ups who seldom cook a meal for themselves. If there were fewer of these restaurants, then probably children would buy less take-away food.
There is another argument that blames parents for allowing their children to become overweight. I agree with this, because good eating habits begin early in life, long before children start to visit fast food shops. If children are given fried chicken and chocolate rather than healthy food, or are always allowed to choose what they eat, they will go for sweet and salty foods every time, and this will carry on throughout their lives.
There is a third reason for this situation. Children these days take very little exercise. They do not walk to school. When they get home, they sit in front of the television or their computers and play computer games. Not only is this an unhealthy pastime, it also gives them time to eat more unhealthy food. What they need is to go outside and play active games or sports.
The above are the main reasons for this problem, and therefore we have to encourage young people to be more active, as well as steering them away from fast food shops and bad eating habits.


there are too many fast food shops around

Question: The author thinks that children are becoming overweight because


tell a story
provide facts
give advice
compare opinions

Question: The main purpose of the text is to _ .


on TV
from the manager
at the supermarket
from the newspaper

Question: The housewives learnt about the offer of free goods  _ .

All the housewives who went to the new supermarket had one great ambition: to be the lucky customer who did not have to pay for her shopping. For this was what the notice just inside the entrance promised. It said: " Remember, once a week, one of our customers gets free goods. This May Be Your Lucky Day!"
For several weeks Mrs. Edwards hoped, like many of her friends, to be the lucky customer. Unlike her friends, she never gave up hoping. The cupboards in kitchen were full of things which she did not need. Her husband tried to advise her against buying things but failed. She dreamed of the day when the manager of the supermarket would approach her and say: " Madam, this is Your Lucky Day. Everything in your basket is free."
One Friday morning, after she had finished her shopping and had taken it to her car, she found that she had forgotten to buy any tea. She dashed back to the supermarket, got the tea and went towards the cash-desk. As she did so, she saw the manager of the supermarket approach her. " Madam,"  he said, holding out his hand, " I want to congratulate you! You are our lucky customer and everything you have in your basket is free!"


is always very lucky
had no friends
hoped to get free shopping
gets disappointed easily

Question: Mrs. Edwards  _ .


make her unhappy
cheer her up
buy things with her
stop her buying things

Question: Mrs. Edwards's husband tried to  _ .


buy another thing
talk to the manager
pay for her shopping
find her shopping

Question: Mrs. Edwards went back to the supermarket quickly because she had to  _ .


Question: Mrs. Edwards must have been  _ .


how much more wisdom we have now than before

if there is a great increase of wisdom in our age

Question: Disagreement arises when people try to decide ________.

Most people would agree that, although our age exceeds all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no corresponding increase in wisdom. But Agreement ceases as soon as we attempt to define "wisdom" and consider means of promoting it.
There are several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your mind. You have no time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say) as modern medicine has succeeded, in enormously lowering the infant death-rate, not only in Europe and America, but also in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowing the standard of life in the parts of the world that have the greatest populations. To take an even more dramatic example, which is in everybody's mind at the present time; you study the makeup of the atom from a disinterested  desire for knowledge, and by chance place in the hands of a powerful mad man the means of destroying the human race.
Therefore, with every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase augments  our capacity for realizing our purposes, and therefore augments our capacity for evil, if our purpose are unwise.


carefully consider the bad effects of any kind of research work

give each important problem some careful consideration

acquire a great deal of complex and special knowledge

give suitable consideration to all the possible elements in a problem

Question: According to the author, "wisdom" is the ability to ________.


prove to be helpful everywhere in the world

give rise to an increase in population in Europe

raise the living standard of the people in Africa

Question: Lowering the infant death-rate may ________.


it's extremely difficult to consider all the important elements in problem

success in medical research has its negative effects

scientists may unknowingly cause destruction to the human race

it's unwise to be totally absorbed in research in scientific medicine

Question: The author uses the examples in the passage to illustrate his point that ________.


It is unwise to place the results of scientific research in the hands of a powerful mad man.

The more knowledge one has, the wiser one becomes.

Any increase of knowledge could lead to disastrous results without the guidance of wisdom.

Wisdom increases in proportion to one's age.

Question: What is the main idea of the passage?


how fast a firm moves depends on how big it is.

how competitive a firm is depends on what it produces.

Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes.

Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit.

Question: What can we learn from the text?

In business, there's a speed difference: It's the difference between how important a firms leaders say speed is to their competitive  strategyand how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful or losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track, What's more, the firms that "slowed down to speed up "improved their top and bottom lines ,averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-years period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better ? They thought differently about what "slower "and "faster" mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operation speed (moving quickly ) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value ). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example , may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, high performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to idea and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look and learn. By contrast . Performance suffered at firms that moved falt all the among their employer , and had little time thinking about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right , rather than plough ahead full bore , are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.


Improve quality? Serve better.
Deliver value? Plough ahead.
Reduce time? Move faster.
Need speed? Slow down.

Question: Where could be the last title for the text?


To find out why honey badgers have a bad reputation.

Question: Why did the wild life experts visit the Kalahari Desert?

On a recent field trip to the Kalahari Desert, a team of researchers learnt a lot more about honey badgers (  ). The team employed a local wildlife expert, Kitso Khama, to help them locate and follow the badgers across the desert. Their main aim was to study the badgers' movements and behavior as discreetly  as possible, without frightening them away or causing them to change their natural behavior. They also planned to trap a few and study them close up before releasing them in view of the animal's reputation, this was something that even Khama was reluctant to do.
"The problem with honey badgers is they are naturally curious animals, especially when they see something new," he says. "That, combined with their unpredictable nature, can be a dangerous mixture.
If they sense you have food, for example, they won't be shy about coming right up to you for something to eat. They're actually quite sociable creatures around humans, but as soon as they feel they might be in danger, they can become extremely vicious  . Fortunately this is rare, but it does happen."
The research confirmed many things that were already known. As expected, honey badgers ate any creatures they could catch and kill. Even poisonous snakes, feared and avoided by most other animals, were not safe from them. The researchers were surprised, however, by the animal's fondness for local melons, probably because of their high water content. Previously researchers thought that the animal got all of its liquid requirements from its prey (  ). The team also learnt that, contrary to previous research findings, the badgers occasionally formed loose family groups.
They were also able to confirm certain results from previous research, including the fact that female badgers never socialised with each other.
Following some of the male badgers was a challenge, since they can cover large distances in a short space of time. Some hunting territories cover more than 500 square kilometers. Although they seem happy to share these territories with other males, there are occasional fights over an important food source, and male badgers can be as aggressive towards each other as they are towards other species.
As the badgers became accustomed to the presence of people, it gave the team the chance to get up close to them without being the subject of the animals' curiosity--or a sudden aggression.
The badgers' eating patterns, which had been disrupted, to normal. It also allowed the team to observe more closely some of the other creatures that form working associations with the honey badger, as these seemed to badgers' relaxed attitude when near humans.


They show interest in things they are not familiar with.

Question: What does Kitso Khama say about honey badgers?


There were some creatures they did not eat.

They were afraid of poisonous creatures.

Female badgers did not mix with male badgers.

They may get some of the water they needed from fruit.

Question: What did the team find out about honey badgers?


They defend their territory from other badgers.

Question: Which of the following is a typical feature of male badgers?


They became less aggressive towards other creatures.

Other animals started working with them.

Question: What happened when honey badgers got used to humans around them?


Books were an important form of artistic expression.

A wide variety of books with different styles and topics became available.

Most books were intended for sale on the open market.

Question: Paragraph 1 makes all of the following points about Islamic books EXCEPT:

The arts of the Islamic book, such as calligraphy and decorative drawing, developed during A.D. 900 to 1500, and luxury books are some of the most characteristic examples of Islamic art produced in this period. This came about from two major developments: paper became common, replacing parchment as the major medium for writing, and rounded scripts were regularized and perfected so that they replaced the angular scripts of the previous period, which because of their angularity were uneven in height. Books became major vehicles for artistic expression, and the artists who produced them, notably calligraphers and painters, enjoyed high status, and their workshops were often sponsored by princes and their courts. Before A.D. 900, manuscripts of the Koran (the book containing the teachings of the Islamic religion) seem to have been the most common type of book produced and decorated, but after that date a wide range of books were produced for a broad spectrum of patrons. These continued to include, of course, manuscripts of the Koran, which every Muslim wanted to read, but scientific works, histories, romances, and epic and lyric poetry were also copied in fine handwriting and decorated with beautiful illustrations. Most were made for sale on the open market, and cities boasted special souks (markets) where books were bought and sold. The mosque of Marrakech in Morocco is known as the Kutubiyya, or Booksellers' Mosque, after the adjacent market. Some of the most luxurious books were specific commissions made at the order of a particular prince and signed by the calligrapher and decorator.
Papermaking had been introduced to the Islamic lands from China in the eighth century. It has been said that Chinese papermakers were among the prisoners captured in a battle fought near Samarqand between the Chinese and the Muslims in 751, and the technique of papermaking - in which cellulose pulp extracted from any of several plants is first suspended in water, caught on a fine screen, and then dried into flexible sheets - slowly spread westward. Within fifty years, the government in Baghdad was using paper for documents. Writing in ink on paper, unlike parchment, could not easily be erased, and therefore paper had the advantage that it was difficult to alter what was written on it. Papermaking spread quickly to Egypt - and eventually to Sicily and Spain - but it was several centuries before paper supplanted parchment for copies of the Koran, probably because of the conservative nature of religious art and its practitioners. In western Islamic lands, parchment continued to be used for manuscripts of the Koran throughout this period.
The introduction of paper spurred a conceptual revolution whose consequences have barely been explored. Although paper was never as cheap as it has become today, it was far less expensive than parchment, and therefore more people could afford to buy books, Paper is thinner than parchment, so more pages could be enclosed within a single volume. At first, paper was made in relatively small sheets that were pasted together, but by the beginning of the fourteenth century, very large sheets - as much as a meter across - were available.These large sheets meant that calligraphers and artists had more space on which to work. Paintings became more complicated, giving the artist greater opportunities to depict space or emotion. The increased availability of paper, particularly after 1250, encouraged people to develop systems of representation, such as architectural plans and drawings. This in turn allowed the easy transfer of artistic ideas and motifs over great distances from one medium to another, and in a different scale in ways that had been difficult, if not impossible, in the previous period.
Rounded styles of Arabic handwriting had long been used for correspondence and documents alongside the formal angular scripts used for inscriptions and manuscripts of the Koran. Around the year 900, Ibn Muqla, who was a secretary and vizier at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, developed a system of proportioned writing. He standardized the length of alif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and then determined what the size and shape of all other letters should be, based on the alif. Eventually, six round forms of handwriting, composed of three pairs of big and little scripts known collectively as the Six Pens, became the standard repertory of every calligrapher.


Question: The word "sponsored" in the passage is closest in meaning to


Question: The word "adjacent" in the passage is closest in meaning to


did not contain any calligraphy or decoration

Question: According to paragraph 1, before A.D. 900, books in the Islamic world


To cast doubt on the importance of souks in making books available to common people

To provide an example of a place where books were made at the order of a particular prince

To emphasize how influential and well known the book markets were

To demonstrate the need for religious texts in Islamic lands

Question: In paragraph 1, why does the author mention the fact that the mosque in Marrakech, Morocco, is known as the Booksellers' Mosque


taken out of
produced using
discovered in
combined with

Question: The phrase "extracted from" in the passage is closest in meaning to


It was harder to erase or change what was written on paper.

More pages of paper could be bound in a single volume.

Paper could be produced in sheets of varying weights and thicknesses.

More people could buy books made of paper because it was cheaper.

Question: In paragraphs 2 and 3, which of the following is NOT mentioned as an advantage of paper over parchment?


To provide evidence that the development of papermaking techniques was very slow

To explain why paper was never as cheap as it has become today

To make the point that paper allowed artists to develop paintings that were more expressive and complex

To prove that paper was more popular with artists who used large sheets, than it was with book printers, who used smaller sheets

Question: Why does the author include the following information: "At first, paper was made in relatively small sheets that were pasted together, but by the beginning of the fourteenth century, very large sheets - as much as a meter across -were available."?


encourage more people to make their own drawings

made the transfer of artistic ideas to distant people and places much easier

made architectural plans more complex and therefore harder to read

allowed artists to create paintings that were smaller in scale

Question: According to paragraph 3, the increased availability of paper and the development of systems of representation


He modified a set of formal scripts known as the Six Pens into rounded scripts appropriate for correspondence.

He created a standardized set of rounded scripts proportional to the size of the first letter of the alphabet.

He promoted calligraphy as an art form and encouraged the use of rounded letters in religious texts.

He persuaded the court in Baghdad to use rounded styles instead of more angular scripts in their documents.

Question: According to paragraph 4, what did Ibn Muqla achieve around the year 900?


made up of
developed from
in addition to
similar to

Question: The phrase "composed of" in the passage is closest in meaning to


we have little knowledge about our own senses

most people tend to dream in black and white

Question: Schwitzgebel believes that _ .

Spend too long watching old movies this holiday season, and your nightlife might seem a lot less colourful. ~ When we are surrounded by black and white imagery, we think our dreams are monochrome, says a US philosopher.
In surveys from the 1950s--the golden age of black and white--most said that their dreams were never or rarely in colour, found Eric Schwitzgebel of the University of California, Riverside. Before and since, most have reported colourful dreams.
The finding shows how little we know our own senses, says Schwitzgebel. This is one piece of a general picture--our knowledge of our stream of experience is very poor.
American dreaming in the Eisenhower era was no different to that in any other period, Schwitzgebel thinks. People were just more likely to believe that they dreamed in black and white, because that reflected the artificial dreams around them. Before the twentieth century, dreams were often compared to paintings or tapestries.
We know little about what a dreaming brain is up to, comments neuroscientist Daniel Glaser. Brain scans of sleepers might show whether the brain regions that process colour vision are active during vivid dreams, he says.
Another possibility is that dream colours are indeterminate, in the same way that a novelist can describe something without naming its colour. They would only become coloured, or not, in our waking reconstruction of them.
When people say that they dream in black and white, they probably mean that they haven't noticed any colours, says psychologist Mark Blagrove of the University of Wales, UK.
Black and white dreaming is a concept borrowed from technology, he agrees. The idea that things in dreams are in shades of grey has no meaning.
Our waking perceptions of colour are just as fluid. Only the central patch of the retina can see in colour, yet we perceive the whole world as coloured. Our eyes jump around, and the brain fills in the gaps with memory or guesswork. Our feeling that we see in colour could be akin to our perception of dreaming in colour, Glaser says.
The media probably influence our dreaming lives as much now as they did in the 1950s. Few people mention touch in dreams, Schwitzgebel points out--that' s why people pinch themselves to see if they' reawake.
But as entertainment becomes more immersive--with virtual reality providing tactile, as well as visual, stimulation--our dreams may come to seem more touchy-feely. We might start thinking ourdreams are really great, he says. [426 words]


we might not be able to see whether we are dreaming by pinching ourselves

the media will influence our dreaming much less than they do now

Question: In the future, _ .


it is meaningless to say dreaming in black and white

much work has to be done before we know why a brain dreams

we are incapable of perceiving the world around us in colour

Question: According to neuroscientist Daniel Glaser, _  .


are somewhat influenced by what we watch during waking hours

black and white dreaming results from watching old movies

people who dream in black and white are all colour-blind

what we dream are certainly what we have seen

Question: It can be inferred from this passage that our dreams _ .


Black and White Imagery Makes Dreams Monochrome

Question: The best title for this passage should be _


teachers will spend less time on teaching

Question: The author thinks that with full government funding

The Cost of Higher Education
Individuals  should pay for their higher education.
A university education is of huge and direct benefit to the individual. Graduates earn more than non-graduates. Meanwhile, social mobility is ever more dependent on having a degree. However, only some people have it. So the individual, not the taxpayers, should pay for it. There are pressing calls on the resources  of the government. Using taxpayers' money to help a small number of people to earn high incomes in the future is not one of them.
Full government funding  is not very good for universities. Adam Smith worked in a Scottish university whose teachers lived off student fees. He knew and looked down upon 18th-century Oxford, where the academics lived comfortably off the income received from the government. Guaranteed salaries, Smith argued, were the enemy of hard work; and when the academics were lazy and incompetent, the students were similarly lazy.
If students have to pay for their education, they not only work harder, but also demand more from their teachers. And their teachers have to keep them satisfied. If that means taking teaching seriously, and giving less time to their own research interests, that is surely something to celebrate.
Many people believe that higher education should be free because it is good for the economy . Many graduates clearly do contribute to national wealth, but so do all the businesses that invest  and create jobs. If you believe that the government should pay for higher education because graduates are economically productive, you should also believe that the government should pay part of business costs. Anyone promising to create jobs should receive a gift of capital from the government to invest. Therefore, it is the individual, not the government, who should pay for their university education.


call on them to finance students' studies

show their contribution to higher education

Question: The author mentions businesses in Paragraph 5 in order to


Question: The student who earns A's on his report card has grasped the idea and has found the real meaning of individuality. So has the youngster who has designed his own spaceship, who paints pictures of the world around him, or who can name all the states and their capitals. According to the author unique individuals are persons who _ .

It is doing something better than other people that makes us unique. Yet a surprising number of people still see individuality as a surface thing. They wear bright clothes, dye their hair strange colors and decorate their skin with tattoos to make some kind of social statement.
The whole purpose of individuality is excellence. The people who comprehend the simple principle of being unique through performance make our entire political and economic system work. Those who invent, who improve, who know more about a subject than other people do, and who take something that doesn't work and make it work-these people are the very soul of capitalism.
Charles Kettering didn't like the idea of cranking a car to make it start, so he invented the electric starter. Henry Ford figured out the assembly-line technique and made it possible to mass-produce automobiles. Lewis Waterman saw no need to go on dipping a pen into an inkwell, so he put the ink into the pen. George Westinghouse told the world how to stop a train, and Elisha Otis, inventor of the elevator, indirectly created the city skyline. These people understood that individualism means working at the top of one's capacity.
Fortunately, enough Americans have been inspired to do something with their uniqueness that we have developed in less than three centuries from a frontier outpost into not only a country of freedom but a country strong enough to protect that freedom. These people prized the notions of individuality and excellence above all things and thus kept the great machine functioning. The ones with the purple hair and the horrorable jewelry are just along for the ride, trying to be "different" and not knowing how to go about it.


wearing bright clothes
coloring their hair
doing better than others
decorating their skin with tattoos

Question: People who regard individuality as a surface thing always do the following EXCEPT


Henry Ford invented assembly-line technique.

Elisha Otis was the inventor of the lift

Lewis Waterman put the ink into the pen.

Question: Which is NOT TRUE according to the passage?


the real secret to being unique lies in our excellent work

if we want to be different we'd gain more profit

the student who earns A's on the report card has not grasped the real meaning of　individuality

all Americans work miracles In the writer's opinion

Question: It can be inferred from the passage that _ .


The youngster who designed his own spaceship.

The youngster who painted worthy pictures.

The youngster who was interested in wearing strange clothes.

Question: Who has understood the sense of individuality?


Violence Can Do Nothing to Diminish Race Prejudice.

Important People on Both Sides See Violence As a Legitimate Solution.

The Instincts of Human Race Are Thirsty for Violence.

Question: What is the best title for this passage?

Violence Can Do Nothing to Diminish Race Prejudice
In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violencehas so come to be taken for granted as a means of solvingdifferences, that it is not even questioned. There are countrieswhere the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there arecountries where the black man protests by setting fire to citiesand by looting and pillaging. Important people on both sides,who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly argue in favor ofviolence - as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other. What is really frightening, what really fillsyou with despair, is the realization that when it comes to the crunch, we have made no actualprogress at all. We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basicallyunchanged. The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation ofviolence, has taught us absolutely nothing. We have still not learnt that violence never solves aproblem but makes it more acute. The sheer horror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing.No solution ever comes to light the morning after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruinsand wonder what hit us.
The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and herder to geta hearing. They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because theyadvocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement. If half the energy that goes intoviolent acts were put to good use, if our efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums andghettos, at improving living-standards and providing education and employment for all, we wouldhave gone a long way to arriving at a solution. Our strength is sapped by having to mop up themess that violence leaves in its wake. In a well-directed effort, it would not be impossible to fulfill theideals of a stable social programme. The benefits that can be derived from constructive solutionsare everywhere apparent in the world around us. Genuine and lasting solutions are always possible,providing we work within the framework of the law.
Before we can even begin to contemplate peaceful co-existence between the races, we mustappreciate each other's problems. And to do this, we must learn about them: it is a simple exercisein communication, in exchanging information. ‘Talk, talk, talk,' the advocates of violence say, ‘allyou ever do is talk, and we are none the wiser.' It's rather like the story of the famous barristerwho painstakingly explained his case to the judge. After listening to a lengthy argument the judgecomplained that after all this talk, he was none the wiser. ‘Possible, my lord,' the barrister replied, ‘none the wiser, but surely far better informed.' Knowledge is the necessary prerequisite towisdom: the knowledge that violence creates the evils it pretends to solve.


violence never solves anything.
nothing.
the bloodshed means nothing.
everything.

Question: Recorded history has taught us


Have difficulty in advocating law enforcement.

Question: It can be inferred that truly reasonable men


He was not at all wiser than nothing before.

Question: "He was none the wiser" means


law enforcement.
knowledge.
nonviolence.
Mopping up the violent mess.

Question: According the author the best way to solve race prejudice is


The range of sizes, shapes, and designs
The unusual geometric
The absence of decoration
The rare materials used

Question: If the basketry materials used by the Pomo people were limited, the designs were amazingly varied. Every Pomo basketmaker knew how to produce from fifteen to twenty distinct patterns that could be combined in a number of different ways. 1. What best distinguished Pomo baskets from baskets of other groups?

The Native Americans of northern California were highly skilled at basketry, using the reeds, grasses, barks, and roots they found around them to fashion articles of all sorts and sizes - not only trays, containers, and cooking pots, but hats, boats, fish traps, baby carriers, and ceremonial objects.
Of all these experts, none excelled the Pomo - a group who lived on or near the coast during the 1800's, and whose descendants continue to live in parts of the same region to this day. They made baskets three feet in diameter and others no bigger than a thimble. The Pomo people were masters of decoration. Some of their baskets were completely covered with shell pendants; others with feathers that made the baskets' surfaces as soft as the breasts of birds. Moreover, the Pomo people made use of more weaving techniques than did their neighbors. Most groups made all their basketwork by twining - the twisting of a flexible horizontal material, called a weft, around stiffer vertical strands of material, the warp. Others depended primarily on coiling - a process in which a continuous coil of stiff material is held in the desired shape with tight wrapping of flexible strands. Only the Pomo people used both processes with equal ease and frequency. In addition, they made use of four distinct variations on the basic twining process, often employing more than one of them in a single article.
Although a wide variety of materials was available, the Pomo people used only a few. The warp was always made of willow, and the most commonly used weft was sedge root, a woody fiber that could easily be separated into strands no thicker than a thread. For color, the Pomo people used the bark of redbud for their twined work and dyed bullrush root for black in coiled work. Though other materials were sometimes used, these four were the staples in their finest basketry.


Question: The word "fashion" in line 2 is closest in meaning to


Question: The Pomo people used each of the following materials to decorate baskets EXCEPT


The neighbors of the Pomo people tried to improve on the Pomo basket weaving techniques.

The Pomo people were the most skilled basket weavers in their region.

The Pomo people learned their basket weaving techniques from other Native Americans.

The Pomo baskets have been handed down for generations.

Question: What is the author's main point in the second paragraph?


Question: The word "others " in line 9 refers to


tool for separating sedge root
process used for coloring baskets
pliable maternal woven around the warp
pattern used to decorate baskets

Question: According to the passage , a weft is a


Question: According to the passage , what did the Pomo people use as the warp in their baskets?


Question: The word "article" in line 17 is close in meaning to


bullrush and coiling
weft and warp
willow and feathers
sedge and weaving

Question: According to the passage . The relationship between redbud and twining is most similar to the relationship between


combinations
limitations
accessories
basic elements

Question: The word "staples" in line 23 is closest in meaning to


systematic beautiful different compatible

Question: The word "distinct" in lime 26 is closest in meaning to


Baskets produced by other Native Americans were less varied in design than those of the Pomo people.

Baskets produced by Pomo weavers were primarily for ceremonial purposes.

There were a very limited number of basketmaking materials available to the Pomo people.

The basketmaking production of the Pomo people has increased over the years.

Question: Which of the following statements about Pomo baskets can be best inferred from the passage ?


the unexpected competition from video games

it needs to find a new business model for long-term development

it is severely threatened by online piracy

it fails to catch up with the technological development of digital distribution

Question: The main problem faced by the music industry is  _ .

As the music industry searches for a new model in the age of digital distribution and internet piracy, it is getting a helping hand from an unexpected quarter: video games such as" Guitar Hero"  and" Rock Band" , which let people play along to songs on simplified imitation instruments." These games are revitalising the industry,"  says Aram Sinnreich, an industry expert at New York University. " They're helping as both a revenue and an advertising platform."
The main impact of the games is to provide exposure. Inclusion of their music in these popular games has allowed previously obscure bands to achieve international fame, and veteran musicians to blast the ears of a new generation. According to Activision Blizzard, the video-game giant behind" Guitar Hero III" , bands whose songs are included in the game can expect online sales of their music to increase by an average of 300% as a result. " We're definitely in demand-we're constantly being pitched by artists and management,"  says Paul DeGooyer, senior vice-president of games and music at MTV, which publishes" Rock Band" . As well as increasing sales, having a song in his game also boosts a band's overall fame and popularity. " We're providing a new outlet for people to experience music,"  he says.
One beneficiary has been Dragonforce, a British speed-metal band that rose to fame after their song" Through the Fire and Flames"  was included as the hardest track in" Guitar Hero III" . Its difficulty has inspired many players to post videos of themselves playing the song online. Chris Brown, who is in charge of the band's marketing, says the track had sold 55,000 copies online before the game's release in October 2007. " Now we're up to 624,000. Guitar Hero has really opened up our music to the mainstream,"  says Mr Brown.
Established artists are also using the games to promote their music. Bobby Kotick, Activision's boss, says Aerosmith have made more money from" Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" , a version of the video-game that features the band, than from any of their albums. Mr Kotick has even suggested that rather than expecting games companies to pay to license their music, bands should pay to have their music included in games. Motley Crue released a new single via" Rock Band"  in April, and in September Metallica's new album" Death Magnetic"  was made available as a download for" Guitar Hero"  on the day of its release. （Fans have pointed out that the video-game version actually sounds better than the album.）Such in-game downloads are typically sold for $2 per song, twice as much as the music alone fetches on iTunes, the leading online-music store.
But will it last? Bob Lefsetz, a veteran industry figure, speculates that music games, which burst onto the scene in 2005, could burn out just as quickly. Teenagers already like classic rock anyway, he says, so the games will not greatly expand the market. " The music business is looking for any good news. These games aren't going to save it."


all the bands with their music included in video games can gain popularity

the major influence of video games on the music industry is increasing revenue

artists and managers try to find the best music bands from video games

inspiring interaction with game players can increase a band's fame

Question: It can be inferred from the text that  _ .


he has already established a new business model for the music industry

music in video games should also be downloadable on the internet

there should be difference between the video-game and album versions of a song

video games should charge bands but not the other way around

Question: Bobby Kotick, Activision's boss, believes that  _ .


the collaboration between video games and the music industry might be a flash in the pan

the video game model is the last gasp of the deteriorating music industry

rock music is not exactly the reason why the bands succeed in video games

the music business is still looking for greater music

Question: We can draw a conclusion from the last paragraph that  _ .


objective positive pessimistic indifferent

Question: From the text we can see that the writer's attitude toward the collaboration seems  _ .


Manufacture as many green products as possible.

Indicate whether their products are recyclable.

Specify in what way their products are green.

Attach green labels to all of their products.

Question: What do the revised "Green Guides" require businesses to do?

Manufacturers of products that claim to be environmentally friendly will face tighter rules on how they are advertised to consumers under changes proposed by the Federal Trade Commission.
The commission's revised "Green Guides" warn marketers against using labels that make broad claims, like "eco-friendly". Marketers must qualify their claims on the product packaging and limit them to a specific benefit, such as how much of the product is recycled.
"This is really about trying to cut through the confusion that consumers have when they are buying a product and that businesses have when they are selling a product," said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the commission.
The revisions come at a time when green marketing is on the rise. According to a new study, the number of advertisements with green messages in mainstream magazines has risen since 1987, and peaked in 2008 at 10.4%. In 2009, the number dropped to 9%.
But while the number of advertisements may have dipped, there has been a rapid spread of ecolabeling. There are both good and bad players in the eco-labeling game.
In the last five years or so, there has been an explosion of green claims and environmental claims. It is clear that consumers don't always know what they are getting.
A handful of lawsuits have been filed in recent years against companies accused of using misleading environmental labels. In 2008 and 2009, class-action lawsuits  were filed against SC Johnson for using "Greenlist" labels on its cleaning products. The lawsuits said that the label was misleading because it gave the impression that the products had been certified by a third party when the certification was the company's own.
"We are very proud of our accomplishments under the Greenlist system and we believe that we will prevail in these cases," Christopher Beard, director of public affairs for SC Johnson, said, while acknowledging that "this has been an area that is difficult to navigate."
Companies have also taken it upon themselves to contest each other's green claims.
David Mallen, associate director of the Council of Better Business Bureau, said in the last two years the organization had seen an increase in the number of claims companies were bringing against each other for false or misleading environmental product claims.
"About once a week, I have a client that will bring up a new certification I've never even heard of and I'm in this industry, said Kevin Wilhelm, chief executive officer of Sustainable Business Consulting. "It's kind of a Wild West, anybody can claim themselves to be green." Mr. Wilhelm said the excess of labels made it difficult for businesses and consumers to know which labels they should pay attention to.


They can easily see through the businesses' tricks.

They have to spend lots of time choosing products.

They have doubt about current green certification.

They are not clear which products are truly green.

Question: What does the author say about consumers facing an explosion of green claims?


It gave consumers the impression that all its products were truly green.

It gave a third party the authority to label its products as environmentally friendly.

It misled consumers to believe that its products had been certified by a third party.

It sold cleaning products that were not included in the official "Greenlist".

Question: What was SC Johnson accused of in the class-action lawsuits?


There were no clear guidelines concerning green labeling.

His company's products had been well received by the public.

It was in conformity to the prevailing practice in the market.

No law required the involvement of a third party in certification.

Question: How did Christopher Beard defend his company's labeling practice?


Businesses compete to produce green products.

Each business acts its own way in green labeling.

Consumers grow wild with products labeled green.

Anything produced in the West can be labeled green.

Question: What does Kevin Wilhelm imply by saying "It's kind of a Wild West" (Line 3，Para. 11)?


Most city-states followed the model provided by Athens.

Most city-states were based on aristocratic rule.

Different types of government and organization were used by different city- states.

By 500 B C. the city-states were no longer powerful.

Question: Paragraph 1 supports which of the following statements about the Greek city- states?

One of the most important changes in Greece during the period from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. was the rise of the polis, or city-state, and each polis developed a system of government that was appropriate to its circumstances. The problems that were faced and solved in Athens were the sharing of political power between the established aristocracy and the emerging other classes, and the adjustment of aristocratic ways of life to the ways of life of the new polis. It was the harmonious blending of all of these elements that was to produce the classical culture of Athens.
Entering the polis age, Athens had the traditional institutions of other Greek protodemocratic states: an assembly of adult males, an aristocratic council, and annually elected officials. Within this traditional framework the Athenians, between 600 B.C. and 450 B. C., evolved what Greeks regarded as a fully fledged democratic constitution, though the right to vote was given to fewer groups of people than is seen in modem times.
The first steps toward change were taken by Solon in 594 B. C., when he broke the aristocracy's stranglehold on elected offices by establishing wealth rather than birth as the basis of office holding, abolishing the economic obligations of ordinary Athenians to the aristocracy, and allowing the assembly (of which all citizens were equal members) to overrule the decisions of local courts in certain cases. The strength of the Athenian aristocracy was further weakened during the rest of the century by the rise of a type of government known as a tyranny, which is a form of interim rule by a popular strongman (not rule by a ruthless dictator as the modern use of the term suggests to us). The Peisistratids, as the succession of tyrants were called (after the founder of the dynasty, Peisistratos), strengthened Athenian central administration at the expense of the aristocracy by appointing judges throughout the region, producing Athens' first national coinage, and adding and embellishing festivals that tended to focus attention on Athens rather than on local villages of the surrounding region. By the end of the century, the time was ripe for more change: the tyrants were driven out, and in 508 B C a new reformer, Cleisthenes, gave final form to the developments reducing aristocratic control already under way.
Cleisthenes' principal contribution to the creation of democracy at Athens was to complete the long process of weakening family and clan structures, especially among the aristocrats, and to set in their place locality-based corporations called demes, which became the point of entry for all civic and most religious life in Athens. Out of the demes were created 10 artificial tribes of roughly equal population. From the demes, by either election or selection, came 500 members of a new council, 6,000 jurors for the courts, 10 generals, and hundreds of commissioners. The assembly was sovereign in all matters but in practice delegated its power to subordinate bodies such as the council, which prepared the agenda for the meetings of the assembly, and courts, which took care of most judicial matters. Various committees acted as an executive branch, implementing policies of the assembly and supervising, for instance, the food and water supplies and public buildings. This wide-scale participation by the citizenry in the government distinguished the democratic form of the Athenian polis from other, less liberal forms.
The effect of Cleisthenes' reforms was to establish the superiority of the Athenian community as a whole over local institutions without destroying them. National politics rather than local or deme politics became the focal point. At the same time, entry into national politics began at the deme level and gave local loyalty a new focus: Athens itself. Over the next two centuries the implications of Cleisthenes' reforms were fully exploited.
During the fifth century B. C. the council of 500 was extremely influential in shaping policy. In the next century, however, it was the mature assembly that took on decision-making responsibility. By any measure other than that of the aristocrats, who had been upstaged by the supposedly inferior "people," the Athenian democracy was a stunning success. Never before, or since, have so many people been involved in the serious business of self-governance. It was precisely this opportunity to participate in public life that provided a stimulus for the brilliant unfolding of classical Greek culture.
One of the most important changes in Greece during the period from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. was the rise of the polis, or city-state, and each polis developed a system of government that was appropriate to its circumstances. The problems that were faced and solved in Athens were the sharing of political power between the established aristocracy and the emerging other classes, and the adjustment of aristocratic ways of life to the ways of life of the new polis. It was the harmonious blending of all of these elements that was to produce the classical culture of Athens.


a constitution that was fully democratic

Question: According to paragraph 2, Athens had all of the following before becoming a city- state EXCEPT


make fewer people qualified to be members of the assembly

make it possible for non-aristocrats to hold office

Increase economic opportunities for all Athenian citizens

Question: According to paragraph 3, an important effect of making wealth the basis of office holding was to


limiting eliminating revising supervising

Question: The word "abolishing" in the passage is closest in meaning to


most Athenians were opposed to rule by the Peisistratids

the word had a somewhat different meaning for the Athenians than it does for people today

the tyrants were supported by the aristocracy

the word can be applied only to ruthless dictators

Question: In paragraph 3, the author's explanation of the word "tyranny" indicates that


Judges were appointed across the region.

Increased attention was focused on local villages.

Question: According to paragraph 3, all of the following were true of the Peisistratids' rule EXCEPT:


making more attractive
providing support for
duplicating
controlling

Question: The word "embellishing" in the passage is closest in meaning to


ensure that every region had the same number of commissioners

distribute the population more equally throughout the Athens region

reduce the importance of family connections

Question: According to paragraph 4, one effect of making the demes the point of entry for civic life was to


determine what issues came before the assembly

oversee the distribution of food and water

Question: According to paragraph 4, one role of the new council was to


Question: The word "exploited" in the passage is closest in meaning to


Question: The word "stunning" in the passage is closest in meaning to


They feel rather bad-tempered and short-fussed.

Question: What effect does exceeding positive ionization have on some people?

Recent research has claimed that an excess of positive ions in the air can have an ill effect on people's physical or psychological health. What are positive ions? Well, the air is full of ions, electrically charged particles, and generally there is a rough balance between the positive and the negative charged. But sometimes this balance becomes disturbed and a larger proportion of positive ions are found. This happens naturally before thunderstorm, earthquakes when winds such as the Mistral, Hamsin or Sharav are blowing in certain countries. Or it can be caused by a build-up of static electricity indoors from carpets or clothing made of man-made fibres, or from TV sets, duplicators or computer display screens.
When a large number of positive ions are present in the air many people experience unpleasant effects such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, and some particularly sensitive people suffer nausea or even mental disturbance. Animals are also affected, particularly before earthquakes, snakes have been observed to come out of hibernation, rats to flee from their burrows, dogs howl and cats jump about unaccountably. This has led the US Geographical Survey to fund a network of volunteers to watch animals in an effort to foresee such disasters before they hit vulnerable areas such as California.
Conversely, when large numbers of negative ions are present, then people have a feeling of well-being. Natural conditions that produce these large amounts are near the sea, close to waterfalls or fountains, or in any place where water is sprayed, or forms a spray. This probably accounts for the beneficial effect of a holiday by the sea, or in the mountains with tumbling streams or waterfalls.
To increase the supply of negative ions indoors, some scientists recommend the use of ionisers: small portable machines, which generate negative ions. They claim that ionisers not only clean and refresh the air but also improve the health of people sensitive to excess positive ions. Of course, there are the detractors, other scientists, who dismiss such claims and are skeptical about negative/positive ion research. Therefore people can only make up their own minds by observing the effects on themselves, or on others, of a negative rich or poor environment. After all it is debatable whether depending on seismic readings to anticipate earthquakes is more effective than watching the cat.


wearing clothes made of natural materials.

Question: In accordance with the passage, static electricity can be caused by _ .


near a pound with a water pump.
close to a slow-flowing river.
high in some barren mountains.
by a rotating water sprinkler.

Question: A high negative ion count is likely to be found _ .


Ionisers.
Air-conditioners.
Exhaust-fans
Vacuum pumps.

Question: What kind of machine can generate negative ions indoors?


watching animals to anticipate earthquakes is more effective than depending on seismography.

the unusual behavior of animals cannot be trusted.

neither watching nor using seismographs is reliable.

Question: Some scientists believe that _ .


custom reveals only the superficial nature of human behavior

the study of social orders can replace the study of custom

people are still not aware of the important role that custom plays in forming our world outlook

custom has little to do with our ways of thinking

Question: The author thinks the reason why custom has been ignored in the academic world is that ________.

Now custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great importance. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief and the very great varieties it may manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probing he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family. When one seriously studies axial orders that have had the opportunity to develop independently, the becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an adjustment to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.


An individual can exercise very little influence on the cultural tradition into which he is born.

Custom is the direct result of the philosophical probing of a group of people.

An individual is strongly influenced by the cultural tradition even before he is born.

Custom represents the collective wisdom which benefits the individual.

Question: Which of the following is true according to John Dewey?


the concept of the true and the false of a society

the independently developed social orders

the adjustment of the individual to the new social environment

the patterns and standards of behavior of a community

Question: The world "custom" in this passage most probably means ________.


is constantly shaping the cultural traditions of his people

is continually influenced by the habits of other communities

is chiefly influenced by the people around him

Question: According to the passage a person's life, from his birth to his death, ________.


to urge individuals to follow traditional customs

to stress the strong influence of customs on an individual

to examine the interaction of man and axial customs

to show man's adjustment to traditional customs

Question: The author's pump in writing this passage is ________.


The case is not encouraging in promoting America's justice outside the country.

The Pentagon is finally beginning to work effectively to try the detainees of its anti-terrorist war.

The detainees are not supposed to have civilian lawyers, while only military lawyers are allowed.

The fact that the Pentagon has been involved in a series of controversies leads to the public attention of the Hicks case.

Question: What does the author intend to illustrate with the Hicks case?

The American military tribunals set up to pass judgment on terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay lurched into life this week when David Hicks, the" Australian Taliban" , unexpectedly pleaded guilty. The Pentagon will be relieved that the tribunals have started to show results after five years of controversy over the status of" enemy combatants" , claims of torture, the admissibility of forced confessions and a Supreme Court ruling last year that halted an earlier version of the tribunals. Yet the Hicks case is hardly an impressive start for America's offshore justice. Critics say the 31-year-old Mr Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner and alleged al-Qaeda fighter, faces a" kangaroo court" . Two of his civilian lawyers were barred from the hearing on March 26th. His military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, has been threatened with prosecution for harshly criticising the tribunals.
The prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, said the defence lawyer may have breached military law that bans officers from using" contemptuous words"  against the president or senior officials. Major Mori filed a counter-charge against the prosecution, saying it was trying to intimidate him. In the end the motion will not be heard because Mr Hicks, looking pale and bedraggled, admitted the charge of" providing material support for terrorism" . A charge of" attempted murder in violation of the laws of war"  was dropped. As The Economist went to press, the tribunal was due to hear details of his plea and pass sentence, which Mr Hicks is expected to serve out in Australia. His father, Terry Hicks, said his son had had" five years of absolute hell"  since being captured in Afghanistan and allegedly suffering beatings, rape and forced injections in American custody-accusations rejected by the Pentagon. The guilty plea was just" a way to get home" , said Mr Hicks's father.
Many in Australia regard Mr Hicks as more of a lost soul than a dangerous terrorist. Indeed, his charge sheet portrays him as little more than an al-Qaeda foot-soldier, and a poor one at that. His jihadi CV is pitiful compared with the evidence being given by some of the 14" high value detainees"  belatedly brought to Guantánamo from CIA secret prisons in September. They include al-Qaeda's operational chief, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who in a closed hearing to determine whether he was an" enemy combatant"  earlier this month boasted that he had organised the September 11th attacks" from A to Z" , and 30 other plots. Meanwhile, Ahmed Ghalfan Ghailani and Waleed bin Atttash, from Tanzania and Yemen respectively, have admitted supplying equipment for the bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Many of these big names will face trial, and perhaps the death penalty. But the tribunals are expected to try only 60-80 of the more than 380 prisoners currently in Guantánamo. Over the years hundreds of detainees have been sent back to their countries, where some have been jailed and most have been released-and sometimes re-arrested. The Bush Administration says it wants to phase out and eventually close the jail. But it is unlikely to do so for some years, either because it lacks the evidence to prosecute detainees（even under the more lax military rules it is using）, or because other countries are unwilling to take them back.


Hicks' military lawyer was also sued by the prosecutor.

The reason that Mr. Hicks pleaded guilty was to escape from the bad treatment.

Mr. Hicks has admitted guilty of both charges by the prosecutor.

The Pentagon is unaware of the accusation toward the American custody.

Question: What can we infer from the second paragraph?


a court dealing with kangaroo smuggle
a weird court
an unfair court
a military court

Question: What does" kangaroo court" （Line 7, Paragraph 1）mean?


the jail in Guantánamo Bay will be closed in the near future

the government is too optimistic in closing the jail

the tribunals will eventually try all the detainees

all the detainees will be sent back to their own countries

Question: The fourth paragraph suggests that  _ .


Australians regard Mr. Hicks as a hero since he is a big name in the al-Qaeda organization.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is charged of his organization of the entire event of the September 11 attacks.

Most detainees will face severe trials and sentences when they are sent back to their home countries.

The whole passage is permeated by an ironic tone towards the saying that the Hicks case showcases America's justice.

Question: Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?


the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards

the appropriate amount of external rewards

the study of relationship between actions and

the effects of external rewards on students' performance

Question: Psychologists are divided with regard to their attitudes toward _ .

Psychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to old cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Some other researchers who study various aspects of mental life, maintain those rewards often destroy creativity byencouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others.
The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary rewards sparks in grade-school children suggesting that properly presented inducements indeed aid inventiveness, according to a study in the June Journal Personality and Social Psychology.
"If they know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity," says Robert Esenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. "But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards."
A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Esenberger holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten grading standards and restore falling grades.
In earlier grades, the use of so-called token economics, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.


They have doubts about external rewards.

They believe external rewards can motivate small children, but not college students.

Question: What is the view held by many educators concerning external rewards for students?


Give rewards for performances which deserve them.

Assign tasks which are not very challenging.

Be more lenient to students when mistakes are made.

Question: According to the result of the study mentioned in the passage, what should educators do to stimulate motivation and creativity?


rewarding poor performance may kill the creativity of students'

punishment is more effective than rewarding

failing uninspired students helps improve their overall academic standards

discouraging the students anticipation for easy rewards is matter of urgency

Question: It can be inferred from the passage that major universities are trying to tighten their grading standards because they believe _ .


Students are assigned challenging tasks.

Rewards are given for good performances.

Students are evaluated according to the effort they put into the task.

With token economics, students' creativity can be enhanced.

Question: Which of the following facts about "token economics" is not correct?


The difficulty of paying the tuition.
The far-sight of Katie's parents.
The promising future of Katie.
The increasing college tuition.

Question: What does the author intend to illustrate with the example of the Harts?

As long as her parents can remember, 13-year-old Katie Hart has been talking about going to college. Her mother, Tally, a financial-aid officer at an Ohio university, knows all too well the daunting calculus of paying for a college education. Last year the average yearly tuition at a private, four-year school climbed 5. 5 percent to more than $17,000. The Harts have started saving, and figure they can afford a public university without a problem. But what if Katie applies to Princeton （she's threatening）, where one year's tuition, room and board-almost $34,000 in 2002-will cost more than some luxury cars? Even a number cruncher like Tally admits it's a little scary, especially since she'll retire and Katie will go to college at around the same time.
Paying for college has always been a humbling endeavor. The good news: last year students collected $74 billion in financial aid, the most ever. Most families pay less than full freight. Sixty percent of public-university students and three quarters of those at private colleges receive some form of financial aid-mostly, these days, in the form of loans. But those numbers are not as encouraging as they appear for lower-income families, because schools are changing their formulas for distributing aid. Eager to boost their magazine rankings, which are based in part on the test scores of entering freshmen, they're throwing more aid at smarter kids-whether they need it or not.
The best way to prepare is to start saving early. A new law passed last year makes that easier for some families.  So-called 529 plans allow parents to sock away funds in federal-tax-free-investment accounts, as long as the money is used for" qualified education expenses"  like tuition, room and board. The plans aren't for everyone. For tax reasons, some lower-and middle-income families may be better off choosing other investments. But saving is vital. When's the best time to start?" Sometime,"  says Jack Joyce of the College Board, " between the maternity ward and middle school."
Aid packages usually come in some combination of grants, loans and jobs. These days 60 percent of all aid comes in the form of low-interest loans. All students are eligible for" unsubsidized"  federal Stafford loans, which let them defer interest payments until after graduation. Students who can demonstrate need can also qualify for federal Perkins loans or" subsidized"  Staffords, where the government pays the interest during school. Fortunately, this is a borrower's market. " Interest rates are at their lowest level in the history of student loans,"  says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Finaid. Kantrowitz expects rates to fall even further when they're reviewed this summer.
Traditional scholarships, academic or athletic, are still a part of many families' planning. Mack Reiter, a 17-year-old national wrestling champion, gets so many recruiting letters he throws most away. He'll almost certainly get a free ride.  Without it, " we would really be in a bind,"  says his mother, Janet. For everyone else, it's worth the effort to pick through local and national scholarship offerings, which can be found on Web sites like collegeboard. com.


Some families are too poor to pay the full amount of the tuition.

Many parents do not favor the form of loans.

Paying the tuition makes the parents feel humble.

Those who are in great need may not get what they need.

Question: What can we infer from the second paragraph?


many recruiting letters failed to provide Mack Reiter with scholarships

Mack Reiter wanted to help his family go out of the trouble

traditional scholarships are a good solution to the tuition problems in some families

Mack Reiter was very proud of his national wrestling championship

Question: The last paragraph suggests that  _ .


Question: What does the author mean by" better off" （Lines 4～5, Paragraph 3）?


The Harts prefer a public university to a private one.

It is much easier to pay the tuition at present.

Traditional scholarships are still attractive to some families.

Question: Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?


he considered his fiction was of high level but was generally undervalued.

he wrote the Holmes stories at the beginning for fun but later merely for the large income.

the Holmes stories hindered him from writing historical fiction.

the Holmes stories earned him the international fame as well as pressure.

Question: Conan Doyle regarded Holmes as a burden because _

The inventor of Sherlock Holmes was the most commercially successful author of his time. Arthur Conan Doyle was a phenomenon: practising doctor, war correspondent, businessman, politician and a campaigner for legal and colonial reforms as well as a popular novelist.
But he considered his fiction undervalued. Though he was known worldwide as the author of the Holmes stories and even sometimes addressed as Mr Sherlock Holmes, Doyle regarded himself as primarily a writer of uplifting historical fiction, usually with a medieval background. At first he considered Sherlock Holmes a pleasant diversion that filled a gap in his income. Eventually he came to think of the detective as an irksome burden: "He keeps me from higher things," he wrote.
The Sherlock Holmes stories continue to exercise extraordinary power. The writing is never more than efficient but the setting remains perennial: the comfortable, carpeted, fire-lit Baker Street sitting room shared by Holmes and Watson, the paradoxically womblike world of a Victorian bachelor set above an anarchic underworld full of violence and immorality. Doyle's literary masterstroke was dividing the story between Holmes and Watson. It was a device the writer used frequently but never as effectively as here.
Doyle's true theme was division: between order and anarchy, reason and emotion, the material and the spiritual. He himself was a man divided, as two new biographical books make clear. The very picture of an upright Victorian gentleman, Doyle was not averse to fighting in the street when the mood took him. And in his late 30s, at the height of his fame, he ran a double life, conducting a largely secret affair with the woman who eventually became his second wife, while his first was gradually succumbing to tuberculosis.
Much of this is revealed in detail in Andrew Lycett's biography and in a selection of Doyle's letters edited by the present executor of the Doyle estate. The story behind the publication of these two books might make a Doylesque thriller in itself. Mr Lycett and the Doyle estate vied to gain control of newly discovered material, each trying to get to market first. Mr Lycett's book is a serious piece of work from an experienced professional biographer. If he never quite gets fully to grips with Doyle's elusive personality, the author is particularly good on the intellectual background to Doyle's work, both known and forgotten. The biography is hobbled by the Doyle estate's refusal to permit quotation from numerous documents. But Mr Lycett makes the best of what he has and fills the gaps with insight.
The selected letters by contrast are strictly an enthusiast's book. The editors' comments are a bit haphazard and it is poorly presented. On the other hand, it does convey an almost physical presence of the author, with his strange mixture of kindness and carelessness, overbearing self-confidence and depressive self-doubt. Above all there is the impression of a man driven by internal forces. Since boyhood Doyle had been struggling with the consequences of his rationalist rejection of Catholicism and his growing conviction that there must be some kind of reality beyond the scientific. This was a division that in the end he could not manage. By the close of his life he was spending his diminishing energies defending not only the world of spiritualism but also the outermost fraudulent fringes of supernatural belief. It was a sorry ending.


Question: The word "averse" (Line 4, Paragraph 4) most probably means _


one with man divided	psychological identities.

Question: In Andrew Lycett's biography, Doyle is most probably described as _


his own creation of the two opposite characters, Holmes and Watson.

his paradoxical views on religion and science in boyhood.

his confusion on reality and fiction all through his life driven by internal forces.

his devotion to the world of spiritualism and his involvement in the secular society.

Question: Doyle's divided personality was a result of  _


He was concerned with the protection of Doyle's privacy.

Mr. Lycett was not the ideal biographer of Doyle.

there was a kind of competition between the two parties in the publication of Doyle's biography.

He was unsatisfied with Mr. Lycett's work which turns Doyle's life into a thriller story.

Question: Doyle estate refused to permit Mr. Lycett to quotate from documents because _


they have to look after their kids
they have to look after their parents
they are busy with their work
they have no money

Question: Many post-80s couples can't go to the movies, shop or attend parties because _  .

Many post-80s couples are complaining that going to the movies, shopping or attending parties have become impossible since their kids were born. That's the way most parents are living their lives, no weekends of their own, no time to visit friends, not even a chance of promotion in their jobs.
Asking help from their parents might be a way out,but problems are that some aging parents arc not strong enough to take care of the kids, and that the kids may also become too spoiled by their grandparents.
Then, here comes a solution: families with kids can form a small group, and parents of each family can take turns to look after all the kids in this group on weekends. Thus, other parents can have some quiet time and feel free to do
something they've been planning for a long time. At the same time, the kids can make new friends and won' t be hanging around their parents all day long.This is baby-pooling.


out of date
a solution
without question
a complaint

Question: In paragraph 2, "a way out" means  _ .


families with kids form a small group
they ask their aging parents for help
they give up their jobs
they lake their kids wherever they go

Question: According to the last paragraph, the solution to the problem of post-80s couples is that  _  .


The parents can have much more free time.

The kids won't be hanging around their parents all day long.

Question: What is( are) the advantage(s) of baby-pooling?


post-80s couples and their friends
post-80s couples and baby-pooling
post-80s couples and their parents
kids and their grandparents

Question: The passage mainly discusses  _  ?


that they could not have traveled across the Bering Strait

that Asia and the Western hemisphere were connected by a large land mass

that the Bering Sea was an isthmus at one time

that migration was in the one direction only

Question: The movement of plants and animals form Asia to America indicates  _ .

The life story of the human species goes back a million years, and there is no doubt that man came only recently to the western hemisphere. None of the thousands of sites of aboriginal habitation uncovered in North and South America has antiquity comparable to that of old World sites. Man's occupation of the New World may date several tens of thousands of years, but no one rationally argues that he has been here even 100,000 years.
Speculation as to how man found his way to America was lively at the outset, and the proposed routes boxed the compass. With one or two notable exceptions, however, students of American anthropology soon settled for the plausible idea that the first immigrants came b way of a land bridge that had connected the northeast comer of Asia to the northwest corner of North America across the Bering Strait. Mariners were able to supply the reassuring information that the strait is not only narrow - it is 56 miles wide - but also shallow, a lowering of the sea level there by 100 feet or so would transform the strait into an isthmus. With little eels in the way of evidence to sustain the Bering Strait land bridge, anthropologists embraced the idea that man walked dryshod from Asia to America.
Toward the end of the last century, however, it became apparent that the Western Hemisphere was the New World not only for man but also for a host of animals and plants. Zoologists and botanists showed that numerous subjects of their respective kingdoms must have originated in Asia and spread to America. These findings were neither astonishing nor wholly unexpected. Such spread of populations is not to be envisioned as an exodus or mass migration, even in the case of animals. It is, rather, a spilling into new territory that accompanies increase in numbers, with movement in the direction of least population pressure and most favorable ecological conditions. But the immense traffic in plant and animal's forms placed a heavy burden on the Bering Strait land bridge as the anthropologists ahead envisioned it. Whereas purposeful men could make their way across a narrow bridge, the slow diffusion of plant and animals would require an avenue as a continent and available for ages at a stretch.


life arose in America independently of life in Europe

the first settlers in America came during the sixteenth century

a large continent once existed which has disappeared

Question: The author is refuting the notion that  _ .


the migration of mankind was from West to East

the migration of mankind was from East to West

Question: By using the words ―boxed the compass ―(in Line 7) the author implies that  _ .


overcrowding
favorable environmental conditions
famine
the existence of a land bridge

Question: One reason for the migration not mentioned by the author is  _ .


the contributions of zoologists and botanists

the contributions made by the American Indians

the existence of a large land mass between Asia and North America

Question: We may assume that in the paragraph that follows this passage the author argues about _ .


He doesn't accept it as part of his life

Question: What is the author's attitude toward dreaming?

Now and again I have had horrible dreams, but not enough of them to make me lose my delight in dreams. To begin with. I like the idea of dreaming, of going to bed and lying still and then, by some queer magic, wandering into another kind of existence. As a child, I could never understand why grown-ups took dreaming so calmly when they could make such a fuss about any holiday, This still puzzles me. I am puzzled by people who say they never dream and appear to have no interest in the subject. It is much more astonishing than it would be if they said they never went out for a walk. Most people do not seem to accept dreaming as part of their lives. They appear to see it as an irritating little habit, like sneezing or yawning.I can never understand this. My dream life does not seem as important as my waking life because there is far less of it, but to me it is important.


an irritating little habit
a horrible but wonderful experience
a true reflection of reality
another kind of existence

Question: For the author of the passage, dreaming is.


Question: The author of the passage suggests that people who say they never go out for a walk are.


only when he was a child
only when he is a grown-up
both as a child and as a grown-up
only in his old age

Question: The author of the passage enjoys dreaming most.


are not interested in talking about their dreams

consider their dreams of to much importance

Question: The author of the passage complains that most people.