The English test will be removed from China’s college entrance exam by 2020, according to details of exam and admission reform revealed by the Ministry of Education. The national college entrance exam, known as the “Gaokao” has been used to evaluate Chinese students for three decades. The Ministry of Education has worked out a plan for reforming exams and enrollment. The Ministry will solicit(征求) public opinions before its release. Instead, tests will be held several times a year to allow students to choose when and how often they sit the exam so as to alleviate study pressure and change China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system.
The plan and suggestions for its implementation will be announced in the first half of next year. It will be piloted in selected provinces and cities and promoted nationwide from 2017. A new exam and admission system will be established by 2020, according to the education ministry.
The decision has aroused a heated discussion among Shanghai educators and parents who doubted the reform would reduce the burden of learning English or if the substitute test could reflect a student’s English skills and help students learn English better.
“The reform shows China is learning from the West to give students more test-taking chances. But more chances might become more of a burden since Chinese students are likely to repeat the test until they get the highest score,” said Cai Jigang, a professor at Fudan University’s College of Foreign Languages and Literature and chairman of the Shanghai Advisory Committee for College English Teaching at Tertiary Level.
Yu Lizhong, chancellor of New York University Shanghai, where classes are in English and students are required to have a high standard of English, said the most important aspect of the reform lay in what to test and how to test.
“ As far as I see, the reform doesn’t mean English is no longer important for Chinese students after it will be excluded from the unified college entrance exam,” Yu said. “In a way, English is even more important than before since the test would only serve as reference, while every college and university, even every major, can have different requirements of a student’s English skills under a diverse evaluation system. ”
Yu said some students will have their study pressure reduced if the major they choose doesn’t need excellent English while others still need to study hard if they want to be among the best students.
The education ministry said the reform would not affect students attending the college entrance exam over the next three years.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．English will become less and less important in the stage of compulsory education. |
| B．It has been 30 years since English became one subject of national college entrance exam. |
| C．China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system is unacceptable at all. |
| D．The system that tests are held several times does more good than once-in-a-lifetime exam system. |
According to the passage, Shanghai educators and parents argue that _____.
| A．the new exam and admission system will make no difference |
| B．English shouldn’t be removed from China’s college entrance exam |
| C．the reform may accomplish the very opposite |
| D．Western educational system does not apply to China |
What does the passage try to express in the underlined sentence?
| A．Students needn’t lay a good foundation during the period of high school. |
| B．Whether students should study hard English may depend on their major. |
| C．Students can constantly strive for perfection only in their major. |
| D．English must be close to full mark. |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To advise students not to devote themselves to English. |
| B．To call on Education Department to remove English from “Gaokao”. |
| C．To support the act of Ministry of Education. |
| D．To encourage students to do as they have planned. |
To be concerned with proper child development is to be concerned about making sure that children have daily access to both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting.
If Heather is being raised by two mommies and Brandon is being raised by Daddy and his new husband-roommate, Heather and Brandon might have two adults in their lives, but they are being deprived of the benefits found in the unique influences found in a mother and father’s differing parenting styles. Much of the value mothers and fathers bring to their children is due to the fact that mothers and fathers are different. And by cooperating together and complementing each other in their differences, they provide these good things that same-sex caregivers cannot. The important value of these gender-based differences in healthy child-development will be explored here.
The fathering difference is explained by fathering scholar Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale Medical School in his book Fatherneed: Why Father Care is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child. Pruett says dads matter simply because “fathers do not mother.” A father, as a male parent, brings unique contributions to the job of parenting that a mother cannot.
Likewise, a mother, as a female parent, uniquely impacts the life and development of her child, as Dr. Brenda Hunter explains in her book, The Power of Mother Love: Transforming Both Mother and Child. Erik Erikson explained that father love and mother love are qualitatively different kinds of love. Fathers love more dangerously because their love is more expectant than a mother’s love.
Dr. Pruett also explains that fathers have a clear style of communication with children. Babuism by 8 weeks, can tell the difference between a male or female communicating with them. Stanford psychologist Eleanor Maccoby, in her book The Two Sexes, explains mothers and fathers respond differently to babies. Mothers are more likely to provide warm care for a envying baby. Whether they realize it or not, children are learning at earliest age that men and women are different and have different ways of dealing with life, other adults and their children.
58．This passage is mainly about___________.
A．three experts’ differen t arguments
B．the introductions to the three famous books
C．mothers and fathers’ different parenting styles
D．the value of parents’ parenting in healthy child－development
59．Which can replace the underlined phrase “deprived of” in Para. 2?
A．providedB．keptC．taken awayD．turned down
60．Which of the following about Dr. Pruett is TRUE?
A．He thinks fathers make more contribution to the job of parenting than mothers.
B．He thinks fathers have better communication with children than mothers.
C．He thinks same – set caregivers cannot bring children good things.
D．He thinks children need father care as well as mother card.
My Best Enemy
Once again, I was in a new school. So was a girl in my class named Lisa. That’s where the similarities ended.
I was tall and she was small. My thick black hair had been recently cut short into an untidy style. Her natural blonde hair flowed to her waist and looked great. I was 12 and one of the oldest in the class while she was 11 and the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn’t. I couldn’t stand her, considering her my enemy. But she liked me and wanted to be friends.
One day, she invited me over and I said yes—I was too shocked to answer any other way. My family had moved six times in six years, and I had never managed to develop any friendships. But this girl who wore the latest fashions wanted me to go home with her after school. She lived in a fun part of town that had two pizza places, an all-right bookstore, a movie theater and a park. As we walked from the school bus stop through her neighborhood, I tried to guess which house might be hers. Was it the white one with the perfect lawn or the three –story house with a front porch? I got very surprised when she led me into an old apartment building. She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother, her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister.
When we got into the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Barbies, which was my next surprise. I had never played with them. We sat on the floor, laughing as we made up crazy stories about the Barbies. We found out that we both wanted to be writers when we were older and both had wild imaginations. We had a great day that afternoon.
Lisa was loved by the whole neighborhood. The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines; the movie theater gave her free tickets…. Soon I was included in her magic world. We slept over at each other’s houses and spent every free moment together.
Lisa, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the rough years of early adolescence（青春期）and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: you worst enemy can turn out to be your best friend.
54．The writer and Lisa were similar in the way that________ .
A．they were both new students B．they had the same hair styles
C．they were both tall D．they were of the same age
55．One day Lisa invited the writer____________.
A．to go to the movie B．to go to her home
C．to go to walk in a parkD．to go to a pizza place
56．In the passage the writer described Lisa as a girl who was___________ .
A．awkward and shy B．rich and happy
C．quiet and lonely D．friendly and lovely
57．Which of the following did the writer learn from Lisa?
A．How to make up stories. B．How to deal with enemies.
C．How to make friends. D．How to live a better life.
If you need extra employment support because of a disability, your local job center put you in touch with one of their Disability Employment Advisers(DEA). Disability Employment Advisers can give you help and support regardless of your situation. They can help you find work or gain new skills even if you have been out of work for a long time, or if you have little or no working experience.
Referral service
Your DEA can offer you an employment assessment to identify what type of work or training suits you best and also offer you a work program designed to help disabled people, like the Job Introduction Scheme, WORKSTEP or Access to Work. The DEA can let you know about jobs that match your experience and skills and offer you more work information.
Employment assessments
An important employment assessment can help you identify your abilities. Your employment assessment will usually take place at your local Job centre. You will have an interview with your DEA, which is an opportunity for you to talk about your skills and abilities and any previous working experience you may have. As part of the assessment, you may be asked to carry out some practical tasks and written work. These tasks will be similar to common tasks involved in various types of work. The assessment may take half a day or longer, depending on your individual needs. The DEA will discuss the length of your assessment with you beforehand.
After the assessment
You and your DEA will talk about your assessment and agree on an action plan to help you achieve your job goals. Your action plan may include training or taking part in the “Work Preparation” program.
An employment assessment does not affect your benefits. You can claim travel expenses for attending an assessment.
45. DEA will help you find a job even if you ______.
A. don’t like your former work at all
B. have been seriously ill for a long time
C. are disabled and have no working experience
D. are a normal man without knowledge
46. The program “Access to Work” aims at ______.
A. exchanging working experience
B. helping the disabled people
C. offering more work information
D. advertising some products
47. From the passage we can learn that ______.
A. the employment assessment is not necessary
B. the employment assessment takes place in a company
C. the employment assessment is carried out by employers
D. the time of the employment assessment is up to you
48. Before you take your job you need ______.
A. training or preparation
B. some travel expenses
C. paying DEA some money
D. very excellent skills
49. According to the ad, which of the following is TRUE?
A. An employment assessment can be done in every Job centre.
B. DEA is a job agency only for disabled people.
C. DEA can help the disabled a lot in finding a job.
D. An employment assessment can value a job seeker in every aspect.
第二部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
If you are looking for a new pet, don’t even think about Komodo dragons, which are the largest lizards and can grow to be 10 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds. Komodo dragons run fast and eat almost any kind of meat, including dead or live animals, other Komodo dragons and people. “These things are powerful killing machines,” says Bryan Fry, a biologist.
If those reasons aren’t good enough, consider the bite of a Komodo dragon. According to a new study, it may kill prey like snakes by injecting venom. This chemical, according to Fry and his team of scientists at the University of Melbourne in Australia, can cause shock in the unlucky victim. A person or animal goes into shock when the body can’t offer enough blood to organs to keep functioning. As a result, the body starts to shut down.
Scientists have only recently begun to understand why a Komodo dragon is so deadly. Some people used to believe that a Komodo dragon’s bite contained bacteria from the mouth that would cause a severe infection in the victim’s blood. The infection would finally kill the animal. Fry says that after being bitten by a Komodo dragon, animal usually die quickly.
After more studies, Fry and his team found that Komodo dragon venom contained some of the same ingredients as snake venom. These ingredients thin the blood and cause blood vessels to become larger. To test the venom, the scientists injected rats with it and observed that the rats became still.
Fry’s work shows that Komodo dragons kill their prey with venom, and not by bacteria — and gives us another reason why we should avoid coming across them. That is easy to do, since they live on a few islands in the tropical country of Indonesia.
41. From the passage we can learn that ______.
A. Komodo dragons live on a few islands of India
B. a Komodo dragon weighs more than 300 kilograms
C. a Komodo dragon is more than eleven feet long
D. nobody dares to keep a Komodo dragon as a pet
42. The underlined word “venom” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. the chemical that does no harm
B. a kind of way that kills its enemy
C. a kind of poisonous liquid of some animals
D. the gas which could cause death
43. Why does a victim get into shock after being injected?
A. He or it is too afraid to move about.
B. His or its organs can’t get enough blood.
C. His or its body was hurt and shuts down.
D. He or it is bitten and loses much blood.
44. Komodo dragons can’t easily hurt us because ______.
A. they are afraid of human beings
B. the venom in them is not so powerful
C. our blood can make them close to us
D. they only inhabit a few islands in Indonesia
When the famous dancer Fred Astaire was interviewed for a job by a Hollywood producer, the movie “expert” turned him down, saying, “Can't sing. Can't act. Dances a little.” Here's another stupid mistake. When the great scientist Albert Einstein was at school, his teachers considered him rather dull. And a final story, the famous Polish pianist Paderewski was told by a teacher that he'd never be a success as a performer because the middle finger on each hand was too short.
What lessons can be drawn from these three experiences? First, true genius(天才) cannot be suppressed(压抑). For some reason or other it works its way out. Second, early judgements of a person's abilities may be unfair or just wrong. Third, when there is a real determination to succeed, obstacles fall by the wayside.
The famous motto “ad astra per aspera” can be translated as “To the stars through hardships.” Astaire, Einstein and Paderewski proved their critics wrong.
45.Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
A.Fred Astaire was a famous dancer.
B.True ability will always make itself known.
C.Some people never get discouraged
D.Albert Einstein proved his teachers wrong.
46.When Paderewski's teachers told him he'd never be a success, they were ______.
A.being humorous B.cheerful, though concerned
C.somewhat hesitant D.seriously mistaken
47.“Ad astra per aspera” is used in the passage ______.
A.as a motto for the three men's lives
B.to show the value of Latin
C.to send the reader to the dictionary
D.to point out that genius is always recognized early
48.The writer of the passage thinks that the reader ______.
A.knows that the three men were successes
B.someday dreams to become like one of the men
C.sympathizes with(同情) the poor teachers of the three men
D.knows that Fred Astaire was an actor famous for performing
Shakespeare's plays