Section I  Use of English

 

Directions:

 

Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.  (10 points)

 

Many professions are associated with a particular stereotype². The  1  image of a writer, for instance, is  2 a slightly easy-looking person, locked in an attic³, writing  3  furiously for days  4 . Naturally, he has his favorite pen and note-paper, or a beat-up typewriter,  5  which he could not produce a readable word.

 

Nowadays, we know that such images  6  little resemblance to reality. But are they  7  false? In the case of at least one writer, it would seem not Dame⁴ Muriel Spark, who  8  80 in February, in many ways resembles this stereotypical⁵ "sitter". She is certainly not crazy, and she doesn't work in an attic. But she is rather  9  about the tools of her  10.

 

She  11  writing with a certain type of pen in a certain type of notebook, which she buys from a certain 12 in Edinburgh called James Thin. In fact, so 13 is she that, if someone uses one of her pens 14 , she immediately throws it away. And she claims she would have enormous difficulty writing in any notebook 15 those sold by James Thin. This could soon be a problem, as the shop no longer 16 them, and Dame Muriel 's 17 of 72-page spiral bound is nearly finished.

 

As well as her “18” about writing materials, Muriel Spark  19 one other characteristic with the stereotypical "writer ": her work is the most important thing in her life. It has stopped her from marrying; 20_ her old friends and made her new ones, and driven her from London to New York to Rome. Today she lives in the Italian province of Tuscany with a friend.

 

1.  [A] historic     [B] antique     [C]senior       [D]classic

 

2.   [A] in                [B]of         [C]with         [D]for

 

3.   [A]away             [B]off         [C]on   [D]down

 

4.   [A] on finish        [B]on final     [C] on end    [D] on stop

 

5.   [A] except      [B]without    [C]beyond     [D] on

 

6.   [A] bear              [B]stand        [C]hold         [D] keep

 

7.   [A] extremely     [B] thoroughly  [C]likely    [D] com­pletely

 

8.   [A]observed [B] entered    [C] saw        [D] turned

 

9.   [A] particular       [B] specific    [C] peculiar    [D] special

 

10.   [A]business        [B]trade        [C]vocation  [D] career

 

11.   [A]persists in     [B] insists on        [C] keeps on [D] indulges in

 

12.   [A]grocer   [B]chemist    [C] stationer         [D] baker⁶

 

13.   [A]mysterious    [B] conventional [C]superstitious [D] traditional

 

14.   [A] by fortune    [B] by accident  [C] on purpose [D] by coincidence

 

15.   [A]much as       [B] rather than   [C] such as   [D] other than

 

16.   [A] piles            [B] stores      [C] stocks     [D] conceals⁷

 

17.   [A] supply [B] provision        [C] supplement  [D] addition

 

18.   [A]devotion        [B] preoccupation [C] worship    [D] obsession⁸

 

19.  [A] shares    [B] agrees       [C] sides      [D] possesses

 

20.  [A]spent              [B] cost        [C] exhausted    [D] tired

 

 

 

Section II  Reading Comprehension

 

Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.  Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.  (40 points)

 

Text 1

 

For thousands of Canadians, bad service is neither make-believe nor amusing. It is an aggra­vating and worsening real-life phenomenon that encompasses⁹ behavior ranging from indifference¹⁰ and rudeness to naked hostility¹¹ and even physical violence. Across the country, better business bureaus report a lengthening¹² litany, of complaints about contractors¹³, car dealers¹⁴, and repair shops, moving companies, airlines and department stores. There is almost an adversarial feeling between businesses and consumers.    

 

Experts say there are several explanations for ill feeling in the marketplace. One is that cus­tomer service was an early and inevitable¹⁵ casualty when retailers¹⁶ responded to brutal¹⁷ competition by replacing employees with technology such as 1 ~ 800 numbers and voice mail. Another factor is that business generally has begun placing more emphasis on getting customers than on keeping them. Still another is that strident, frustrated¹⁹ and impatient shoppers vex²⁰ shop owners and make them even less hospitable—especially a busier times of the year like Christmas. On both sides, simple courtesy has gone by the board. And for a multitude of consumers, service went with it.

 

The Better Business Bureau at Vancouver gets 250 complaints a week, twice as many as five years ago. The bureau then had one complaints counselor²¹ and now has four. People complain about being insulted, having their intelligence and integrity questioned, and being threatened. One will hear about people being hauled almost bodily out the door by somebody saying things like "I don't have to serve you!" or "this is private property, get out and don't come back!” What can customers do? If the bureau's arbitration²² process fails to settle a dispute, a customer's only re­course is to sue in call claims court. But because of the costs and time it takes, relatively²³ few ever do.

 

There is a lot of support for the notion that service has, in part, fallen victim to generational change. Many young people regard retailing²⁴ as just a bead-end job that you're just going to do temporarily on your way to a real job. Young clerks often lack both knowledge and civility. Employers have to train young people in simple manners because that is not being done at home. Salespeople²⁵ today, especially the younger ones, have grown up in a television-computer society where they've interacted largely with machines. One of the biggest complaints from businesses about graduates is the lack of inter-personal skills. 

 

What customers really want is access. They want to get through when they call, they don't want busy signals, they don't want interactive²⁶ systems telling them to posh one for this and two for that—they don't want voice mail. And if customers do not get what they want, they defect. Some people go back to local small businesses: the Asian greengrocer, a Greek baker and a Greek fishmonger. They don't wear nametags, but one gets to know them, all by name.

 

21. At a business place of bad service, the worst one can get is__________

 

[A] indifference and rudeness       

 

[B] naked hostility and physical violence      

 

[C]    having intelligence and integrity questioned

 

[D]   being insulted and threatened

 

22. One of the reasons for such ill feeling in the marketplace is that      

 

[A]    shoppers are usually strident, frustrated and impatient

 

[B]    shoppers often take businesses to court to settle them

 

[C]    businesses use new technology instead of employees

 

[D] businesses are keen on keeping customers, not getting them

 

23. What has changed at Vancouver Better Service Bureau in the past five years?

 

[A]    More effective.    

 

[B]    Less bureaucracy. 

 

[C]More business.

 

[D] Better staff.

 

24. Young clerks often lack interpersonal skills chiefly because they_______________ .

 

[A] are skilled in dealing²⁷ with machines not people

 

[B]    are not trained in simple manners at home

 

[C]    fall victims to generational change

 

[D]   take retailing to be a temporary job

 

25. The author's attitude towards businesses and bad service is_______________ them.

 

[A] attacking                                                            [B] understanding

 

[C] regretting                                                           [D]warning

 

Text 2

 

The United States is the United Nations' biggest deadbeat. Conservatives in Congress, led by Senator Jessie Helms, stopped Washington from paying its dues until the UN reduced its as­sessment and made other changes. Now, thanks to the hard work Richard Holbrook, America's UN representative, and for peacekeeping. Mr. Helms, who has praised the deal, should release the dues he has been holding hostage— $ 582 million of the $1.3 billion the UN says it is owed.

 

The new formula would reduce the US contribution to the general UN budget to 22 percent from the current level of 25 percent—a symbolic²⁸ difference of only $ 34 million a year. Washing­ton, which has been paying just over 30 percent of the peacekeeping budget, would now pay 27 percent—a difference of $ 80 million to $ 120 million a year—and that percentage will drop fur­ther. While poor countries would not pay more, the dues of other wealthy nations would rise un­der the new system.

 

The agreement would probably not have been reached without the intervention²⁹ of the media magnate Ted¹ Turner, who is already contributing $ 1 billion to UN programs over 10 years. Mr. Turner gave $ 34 million to cover the one-year gap during which other nations prepare to raise their contributions. His offer should embarrass Congress, which forced diplomats³⁰ to waste their influence at the UN in months of negotiations³¹ to save a sum that is modest by federal budget stan­dards.   

 

US debts reduced the UN's ability to reimburse³² nations that contributed peacekeepers to UN missions worldwide. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan and other poor countries essentially³³ made up for the absence of US financial support. Since Washington benefits from peacekeepers, which damp down conflicts without US troops, It should not be discouraging nations from sending them.

 

Washington's natural allies at the UN were concerned that the US wanted influence without meeting its treaty obligations. Some of them withheld³⁴ support for US proposals. Mr. Helms should also end his hold on an additional $244 million in back dues, whose release he has conditioned on a reduction in US dues for specialized³⁵ UN agencies such as UNICEF and the UN refugee organization. These agencies need full support. Switch by Mr. Helms would help the in­coming Bush administration, which would reap the benefits of the restoration of America’s full in­fluence at the United Nations.

 

26.         Senator Jessie Helms stopped the US government from paying its dues to the UN because he wants       .

 

[A]   other countries to pay as much as the US

 

[B]    Washington to make assessments³⁷ and changes

 

[C]   the UN's general budget to be trimmed                                                                        ,

 

[D]   the US to share a smaller part of the burden

 

27. The new formula has adjusted the assessment³⁶ and will save the US government at least    a year.

 

[A] $114 million                                            [B] $ 154 million

 

[C] $ 200 million                                           [D] $ 234 million

 

28. After the budget reassessment, the gap left by the US will be covered by______________ .

 

[A] Ted Turner                                             [B] peacekeeping countries

 

[C] all member nations                                  [D] other wealthy nations

 

29. The author believes that Richard Holbrook's negotiations at the UN were______________ .

 

[A]A money-saving success                 

 

[B] An eye-catching embarrassment³⁸

[C] A waste of US influence                 

 

[D] A defense³⁹ of US interest

 

30. From the passage, we can infer that_____________ .

 

[A]    The US contribution to the UN has become a huge burden to Washington

 

[B]    The new formula has not solved all problems concerning the US dues

 

[C]    The dispute over the US dues has been deliberately⁴⁰ made political

 

[D]   Ted turner's intervention saved the US a diplomatic disaster

 

Text 3

With its cluster of high-rises known as the "Frankfurter Manhattan", its big banks and its bustling⁴¹ airport, this is a town with pretensions⁴². Petra Roth, the mayor, sees it as a "global city providing hub functions for the Continent”，a place that should be " as cosmopolitan⁴³ as New York”.

 

Frankfurt is not just the city of foreign companies, but it is also home to 8000 Muslims, most of them Turks of modest means. Foreigners, including a large contingent⁴⁴ from the former Yugoslavia, make up 30 percent of the population; one of the highest ratios for any city in Europe troubled by immigration. But there is no blood on the streets. Quietly flows the Main River be­neath that mock-New World skyline.

 

As Germany goes these days, so goes Europe. And if Frankfurt, the headquarters for Europe's new Central Bank and so the capital of Europe's nascent⁴⁵ shared currency, the euro, is comfortable being a part-Muslim city with 27 mosques⁴⁶, perhaps the so-called New Europe of one money and blurred⁴⁷ borders can be a more tolerant place.

 

"Xenophobia is very unusual in Frankfurt,” SAID Francesco Renaldo, an Italian banker. "Perhaps it's the 300 foreign banks, or the vast airport, or the long American presence. " Not until 1994 did 30 000 American troops pack up and go home—the Cold War ended and, so people here say, the city shaped in the soldiers' open, can-do spirit.

 

But even here, at the heart of American-influenced Europe, far from the strained psyche⁴⁸ of a former East German city like Esau, where rightists this year killed an African immigrant, the ghost of xenophobia is not entirely⁴⁹ absent. For Frankfurt—like Germany, like Europe—is strug­gling to define a shifting identity.

 

As the departed US soldiers suggest, this city is no longer part of a Cold War country living what Safer Seneca, a German intellectual of Turkish descent, has called a "quasi a-national exis­tence under the umbrella of the West". Far from it, this is now the financial center of a strong Germany seeking to define and express a new national pride.

 

But Frankfurt is also the capital of a unique experiment in abolishing the nation-state through the voluntary abandonment of sovereignty involved in giving up national control of monetary⁵⁰ poli­cy and adopting a common currency.

 

So the Continent's largest state, on reborn only in 1990, yet also one that is being abolished, veers⁵¹, this way and that in its mood, one minute nostalgic for a "proud Fatherland", the next in the vanguard of what Foreign Minister Joshua Fischer, himself a child of Frankfurt, calls a post-national era.

 

31.   Frankfurt is referred to as a “global city” like New York because of______________

 

[A]    the foreign banks and businesses

 

[B]    the number of foreigners in the city

 

[C]    the 80,000 Muslims and mosques

 

[D]   the refugees from former Yugoslavia

 

32.   "Quietly flows the Main River beneath that mock-New World skyline " probably means that "  ".

 

[A]    The new central bank had a large inflow of funds

 

[B]    The city life goes on quietly without racial conflicts

 

[C]    The population moves quietly in the street of the city

 

[D]   The foreigners come to the city like a flow of river

 

33.  The word "xenophobia" probably means "____________ ".

 

[A] fear of war                                            [B] psychological nervousness

 

[C] hatred⁵² of foreigners                                [D] open, can-do spirit

 

34.  With the end of the Cold War, Germany is expected to_____________ .

 

[A]    remain under the umbrella of the U S

 

[B]    assume a new national pride

 

[C]    become the financial center of Europe

 

[D]   have surges of rightist killings⁵³

 

35.  The "unique experiment" of European Union requires Germany to_____________ .

 

[A]    enter a post-national era

 

[B]    return to the old "proud Fatherland"

 

[C]    abandon sovereignty and government

 

[D] seek a shifting identity　　

 

Text 4

For many years, and discussion of reparations to compensate⁵⁴ the descendants of African slaves for 246 years of bondage⁵⁵ and another century of legalized discrimination was dismissed.

 

Opponents contend that the fledgling reparations movement overlooks many important facts. First, the assert, reparations usually are paid to direct victims, as was the case when the US gov­ernment apologized and paid compensation to Japanese-Americans interned⁵⁶ during the World War II. Similarly, Holocaust⁵⁷ (大屠杀) survivors⁵⁸ have received payments from the Germans. In addition, not all blacks were slaves, and an estimated 3 000 were slave owners.

 

Also, many immigrants not only came to the United States after slavery ended, but they also faced discrimination. Should they pay reparations, too? Or should they receive them?

 

And regardless of how much slave labor⁵⁹ contributed to the United States' wealth, opponents contend, blacks benefit from that wealth today. As a group, Afro-Americans are the best-educat­ed, wealthiest blacks on the planet.

 

But that attitude is slowly changing. At least 10 cities, including Chicago, Detroit and Washington, have passed resolutions in the past two years urging federal hearings into the impact of slavery. Mainstream⁶⁰ civil rights groups such as National Association for the Advancement⁶¹ of Colored People, the National Urban League and the Southern Christian⁶² Leadership Conference regularly raise the issue.

 

The surging interest in reparable heightened sensitivity to the horrors of slavery, in which as many as 6 million Africans perished in the journey to the Americas alone. There also is growing attention being paid to the huge economic bounty⁶³, that slavery created for private companies and the country as a whole.   

 

Earliest this year, Aetna Inc. apologized for selling insurance policies that compensated⁶⁴ slave owners for financial losses when their slaves died. Last summer, the Hartford Courant in Connecticut printed a front-page apology for the profits it made from running ads for the sale of slaves and the capture of runaways⁶⁵. Next month, a new California law will require insurance companies to disclose any slave insurance policies they may have issued. The state also is requiring University of California officials to assemble a team of scholars to research the history of slavery and report how current California businesses benefited.

 

Proponents⁶⁶ of reparations argue that, even for nearly a century after emancipation⁶⁷, in 1865, blacks legally were still excluded from the opportunities that became the cornerstones for the white middle-class.

 

36. The reasons put forward by opponents of reparations include all the following EXCEPT that    .

 

[A]    compensations usually go to direct victims

 

[B]    blacks who came after slavery ended should not receive compensations

 

[C]    blacks now are enjoying the wealth they created under slavery

 

[D] some blacks were slave owners instead of slaves

 

37. "Immigrants" in paragraph 3 refers to     .

 

[A] Afro-Americans                                  [B] non-white immigrants

 

[C] Japanese-Americans                            [D] holocaust survivors

 

38. That the reparations movement is winning support in America is shown in the fact that___   .

 

 

 

[A]    federal hearings were held to investigate the impact of slavery

 

[B]    even mainstream civil rights groups were persuaded

 

[C]    growing attention is being paid to the wealth of the blacks

 

[D]   there was more public awareness⁶⁸ of the horrors of the whites

 

39. The two private companies that made public apology had_______________ .

 

[A]given slave owners financial losses

 

[B]sold slaves and captured runaways

 

[C]operated insurance and advertisement businesses

 

[D]depended on slavery for their existence

 

40. Which of the following is true according the passage?

 

[A]    US government killed Japanese-Americans during World War II.

 

[B]    A new Californian law disclosed slave-insurance policies.

 

[C]    National Urban League is one of the civil right groups.

 

[D]   Blacks faced no discrimination after liberation in 1865.

 

 

 

PART B.

 

Directions: In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41—45, choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

 

Gene¹⁸ therapy could be given in advance to protect high-risk patients from the consequences of suffering a stroke or heart attack, suggests a new study. A team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, US, and Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, have shown that animals equipped with an extra gene can survive simulated heart attacks virtually undamaged. 41_______________________________________.

 

Strokes and heart attacks occur when blockages⁶⁹ in the arteries⁷⁰ supplying the brain or heart muscles cut off the supply of blood to tissues. The resulting lack of oxygen kills cells, often leaving people with permanent damage, if they survive. Cells do have ways of protecting themselves when oxygen levels are low. They switch on the genes⁷¹ for a number of protective proteins, including heme oxygenase-1. But the researchers found that it takes 12 hours or more for cells to produce high levels of HO-1, by which time it is too late.

 

42____________________________________. The HO-1 protein produced by the gene is identical to the natural human protein. The difference is that the added gene has multiple copies of the switch, or promoter sequence, that turns on protein production.

 

43_____________________________________. Experiments in the lab show that cells with the extra gene produce high levels of HO-1 within an hour of oxygen levels plummeting⁷². Next, the team injected the virus into the heart, liver or muscle tissue of rats and then cut off the blood supply to these tissues for up to an hour. “The level of protection was dramatic,” says team member Victor Dzau, now at Duke University in North Carolina. More recent tests show the approach can also protect brain cells, he told New Scientist.

 

44____________________________________________. But the trouble with this approach is that there is only a narrow window of time when these drugs can make a difference.

 

45.__________________________________________________.

 

The researchers believe the approach has broad applications. Besides people who have a high risk of having a stroke or heart attack, the therapy could also help patients with injuries, shock or bacterial⁷³ infections, which can reduce the blood supply to some tissue or organs, they point out. It could also be given to patients prior to complicated operations. If necessary, more genes could be added to the virus to provide even better protection.

 

 

 

[A] The extra gene makes no difference normally, but when oxygen levels fall, more HO-1 is produced more quickly.

 

[B] There are already drugs that can be given to patients who suffer heart attacks or strokes to help reduce cell death.

 

[C]The gene switches on quickly in conditions of low oxygen and saves cells from death.

 

[D] Then the extra gene can save the high-risk patients from a stroke or heart attack.

 

[E] If cells could be coaxed⁷⁴ to produce more HO-1 faster, the researchers reasoned, the cells might be saved during a stroke or heart attack. So they modified an adeno-associated virus to deliver an extra HO-1 gene to cells.

 

[F] The team now plans to test the gene therapy on larger animals such as pigs. “We are convinced this strategy is going to be effective,” says Dzau.

 

[G] By the time people reach a hospital and are diagnosed, it is often too late. Giving high-risk patients gene therapy in advance, by contrast, would ensure that the protective mechanism⁷⁵ kicks in as soon as it is needed.

 

Part C

 

Directions:

 

Read the following passage carefully and then translate the underlined sentences into Chinese. Your translation must be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2.  (10 points)

 

Wisdom born of experience should tell us that was is obsolete⁷⁶. 46) There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates even the possibility that war may serve any good at all. In a day when vehicles hurtle through outer space and guided ballistic missiles carve highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can claim victory in war. A so-called limited war will leave little more than a calamitous⁷⁷ legacy⁷⁸ human suffering, political and spiri­tual disillusionment. A world war will leave only smoldering⁷⁹ ashes as mute testimony⁸⁰ of a human race whose folly⁸¹ led inexorably to ultimate death. 47) If modern man continues toy unhesitat­ingly with war, he will transform his earthly habitat into a hell such as even mind of Dante (但丁) could not imagined

 

48) Therefore I suggest that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence becomes immedi­ately a subject for study and for serious experimentation⁸² in every field of human conflict, by no means excluding the relations between nations. It is, after all, nation-states, which make war, which have produced the weapons that threaten the survival of mankind and which are both genocidal and suicidal in character.

 

We have ancient habits to deal with, vast structures of power, indescribably complicated problems to solve. 49) But until we resign our humanity altogether and yield to fear and incapability⁸³ in the presence of the weapons we have ourselves created, it is as possible and as urgent to put an end to war and violence between nations as it is to put an end to poverty and racial injus­tice.     

 

I do not minimize the complexity⁸⁴ of the problems that need to be faced. 50) But I am convinced that we shall not have the will, the courage and the insight to deal with such matters unless in this field we are prepared to undergo a mental and spiritual re-evaluation, a change of focus which will enable us to see that the things that seem most real and powerful are indeed now unreal and have come under sentence of death. We need to make a supreme⁸⁵ effort to generate the readi­ness, indeed the eagerness, to enter in to the new world, which is now possible, "the city which hath foundation, whose Building and Maker⁸⁶ is God".

 

 

 

Section III  Writing (20 points)

 

51. Part A

 

You want to apply for a job as a personal secretary to the General Manager of a trading company. Write a letter to the Human Resources Department of that company to:

 

1) introduce yourself as a possible candidate for the job,

 

2) tell them why you are interested,

 

3) explain why you think you are qualified⁸⁷ for the position.

 

You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use “Li Ming” instead. You do not need to write the address. (10 points)

 

 

 

Part B

 

Study the following set of drawings carefully and write an essay in which you should

 

1)    describe the drawing, interpret its meaning, and

 

2)    point out its implications in our life.

 

You should write about 200 words neatly⁸⁸ on ANSWER SHEET 2.  (20 points)

 

图中，一只小鸟停落在一只斧头上哭泣，小鸟身后是一片被砍倒的树林。

 

 

模拟试题一答案

 

1-20  DＢAＣB  A D D A B  B C C B D  C A D A B 

 

21-40 B C C A D  D A D C B  A B C B A  B B D C C 

 

41-45 C A E B G

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