[填空题]Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
If our society ever needed a reading renaissance(复兴), it’s now.The National Endowment for the Arts released "Reading at Risk" last year, a study showing that adult reading 47 have dropped 10 percentage points in the past decade, with the steepest drop among those 18 to 24. “Only one half of young people read a book of any kind in 2002. We set the bar almost on the ground. If you read one short story in a teenager magazine, that would have 48 , ”laments a director of research and analysis. He 49 the loss of readers to the booming world of technology, which attracts would-be leisure readers to E-mail, IM chats, and video games and leaves them with no time to cope with a novel.
“These new forms of media undoubtedly have some benefits,” says Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You. Video games 50 problem solving skills; TV shows promote mental gymna

[单项选择]Questions 11 to 14 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the passage.
What does the author of this passage most probably do
A. Physician.
B. Psychologist.
C. Fictional writer.
D. Historian.

[单项选择]Questions 11 to 14 are based On the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the passage.
Which of the following adjectives can be used to descibe Joe
A. Funny.
B. Clever.
C. Brave.
D. Stupi

[填空题]Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.
Many private institutions of higher education around the country are in danger. Not all will be saved, and perhaps not all deserved to be saved. There are low-quality schools just as there is low-quality business. We have no obligation to save them simply because they exist.
But many thriving institutions that deserve to continue are threatened. They are doing a fine job educationally, but they are caught in a financial squeeze, with no way to reduce rising costs or increasing revenues significantly. Raising tuition doesn’t bring in more revenues, for each time tuition goes up, the enrollment goes down, or the amount that must be given away in student aid goes up. Schools are businesses, whether public or private, not usually because of mismanagement but because of the nature of the enterprise. They lose money on every customer, and they can go bankrupt either from too few students or too many students. Even a very goo

[单项选择]Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
Good jobs are scarce these days, with roughly 15 million Americans out of work and a national unemployment rate of 10 percent. President Obama tried to address the jobs crisis in his State of the Union by proposing a $ 33 billion tax credit for small businesses to hire new workers and by calling unemployment the most pressing item on his schedule.
Apart from the federal government’s response to the jobs crisis, economists predict that certain industries such as health care, green technology, education and government, will grow in the coming years. Each week we search several job board--including Indeed, Vault and Yahoo to help us track the best job listings with salaries of $100 000 or more. For this week’s picks, we’ve presented jobs in new emerging fields:
The first one is Wind Energy Sales Director. Are you fascinated by the sight of wind power generator, or simply committed to conserving energy SKP USA, a Pennsy
A. Wind Energy Sales Director
B. Sustainability Director
C. Response Management Specialist
D. Government Contract Manager

[单项选择]Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
Genetically Modified (转基因的) crops are everywhere. It seems even in Europe, strict laws designed to
keep the European Union free of GM crops and products are not working, instead are posing problems for the EU: Farmers’ representatives say that supplies of animal feed for poultry and pigs are being refused entry at European ports when found to contain even trace amounts of GM material.
Under Europe’s "zero-tolerance" laws on GM, introduced in 2007, the presence of even a few seeds of GM material will rule out an entire shipment. The animal feed industry says that the laws are unworkable because GM material is almost unavoidable, given today’s global supply chain. "Though we understand the consumer concern in Europe, we don’t understand zero tolerance because it closes down trade," says Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of Copa-Cogeca, a federation of groups representing 15 million EU farmers in total. He claims that E
A. manage to function
B. bring troubles to farmers
C. help farmers to get safe animal feed
D. allow food with insignificant amount of GM

[单项选择]Questions 14 to 16 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the passage.
What can be said about Indian women
A. They played the same games as men.
B. They played games as much as men.
C. They played games with men.
D. They did not play games.

[单项选择]Questions 17 to 20 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the passage.
Why was the speed limit first reduced to 55 miles-per-hour
A. The older people wanted it.
B. The voters decided on it.
C. It was decided that speeds above that were not safe.
D. The US had a fuel crisis.

[单项选择] Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
After the violent earthquake that shook Los Angeles in 1994, earthquake scientists had good news to report: The damage and death toll (死亡人数) could have been much worse.
More than 60 people died in this earthquake. By comparison, an earthquake of similar intensity that shook America in 1988 claimed 25,000 victims.
Injuries and deaths were relatively less in Los Angeles because the quake occurred at 4:31 a.m. on a holiday, when traffic was light on the city’s highways. In addition, changes made to the construction codes in Los Angeles during the last 20 years have strengthened the city’s buildings and highways, making them more resistant to quakes.
Despite the good news, civil engineers aren’t resting on their successes. Pinned to their drawing boards are blueprints (蓝图) for improved quake-resistant buildings. The new designs should offer even greater security to cities where earthquakes often t
A. compare the consequences of the earthquakes that occurred in the U. S.
B. encourage civil engineers to make more extensive use of computers
C. outline the history of the development of quake-resistant building materials
D. report new developments in constructing quake-resistant buildings

[填空题] Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
The way in which people use social space reflects their social relationships and their ethnic identity. Early immigrants to America from Europe brought with them a (47) style of living, which they retained until late in the 18th century. Historical records document a group-Oriented (48) , in which one room was used for eating, entertaining guests, and sleeping. People ate soups from a communal pot, (49) drinking cups, and used a common pit toilet. With the development of ideas about individualism, people soon began to shift to the use of (50) cups and plates; the eating of meals that included meat, bread, and vegetables (51) on separate plates; and the use of private toilets. They began to build their houses with separate rooms to (52) guests — living rooms, separate bedrooms for sleeping, separate work areas — kitchen, laundry room, and separate ba

[单项选择] Questions 14 to 17 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the passage.

Why is the usual reason of flag burning according to the passage
A. Some people do so to voice their position to a special issue.
B. Some people do so to test the impatience of the public.
C. Some people do so to express their hatred of the country.
D. Some people do so to express their political opinion.