Section B (5%)
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choice. Each choice in the blank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet with a single line through the center. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
GE, Whirlpool Corp. and Maytag Corp. currently (56) ________ the US market for household (57) ________ but they tend to focus most of their (58) ________ on mainstream areas such as large refrigerators and freezers.
Haier, which (59) ________ sells $200 million worth of appliances in the US, now claims more than a 35 percent (60) ________ of the US market for minibars (61) ________ in hotels and college dormitories.
“When those college kids (62) ________ our little refrigerators grow up and marry, we want them to remain (63) ________ to our brand,” said Michael Jemal, Haier America’s president.
Haier may need to depend less on the Chinese market because it is likely to face an increasing (64) ________ on its own turf. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization will open up Chinese (65) ________ to greater foreign competition at home.
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A. appliances B. selling C. annually D. found E. challenge F. loyal G. manufacturers H. revenues I. slammed J. products K. dominate L. share M. attention N. using O. sub-standard |
Section C (20%)
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. They are followed by some questions or unfinished statements. There are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage 1
Questions 66 to 70 are based on the following passage.
Some of the world's most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields(产量) of some of the world's major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.
The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat, corn and soybeans (大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.
There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world's most populous (人口多的) countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.
Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that "we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world."
The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organization has argued.
Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert (返回) to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.
66. What does the author try to draw attention to?
A. Food riots and hunger in the world.
B. News headlines in the leading media.
C. The decline of the grain yield growth.
D. The food supply in populous countries.
67. Why does the author mention India and China in particular?
A. Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.
B. Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.
C. Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.
D. Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.
68. What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?
A. They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s.
B. They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production.
C. They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world.
D. They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.
69. What does the Food and Agriculture Organization say about world food production in the coming decades?
A. The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.
B. The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution.
C. The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.
D. The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland.
70. How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agriculture Organization?
A. It is built on the findings of a new study.
B. It is based on a doubtful assumption.
C. It is backed by strong evidence.
D. It is open to future discussion.
Passage 2
Questions 71 to 75 are based on the following passage.
In this age of Internet chat, video games and reality television, there is no shortage of mindless activities to keep a child occupied. Yet, despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition she won last year.
As a writer I know about winning contest, and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection slip from the publisher. I also know the pressures of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn't win the contest again? That's the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and dashed hopes can surface.
A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, "Don't you want to win again?" "No," she replied, "I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade."
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously(自由地) told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly "guided" by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting (借用) my daughter's experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.
71. What do we learn from the first paragraph?
A. Children do find lots of fun in many mindless activities.
B. Rebecca is much too occupied to enjoy her leisure time.
C. Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials for her writing.
D. A lot of distractions compete for children's time nowadays.
72. What did the author say about her own writing experience?
A. She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer.
B. Her way to success was full of pains and frustrations.
C. She was constantly under pressure of writing more.
D. Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers.
73. Why did Rebecca want to enter this year's writing contest?
A. She believed she possessed real talent for writing.
B. She was sure of winning with her mother's help.
C. She wanted to share her stories with readers.
D. She had won a prize in the previous contest.
74. The author took great pains to refine her daughter's stories because ____
A. She believed she had the knowledge and experience to offer guidance
B. She did not want to disappoint Rebecca who needed her help so much
C. She wanted to help Rebecca realize her dream of becoming a writer
D. She was afraid Rebecca's imagination might run wild while writing
75. What's the author's advice for parents?
A. A writing career, though attractive, is not for every child to pursue.
B. Children should be allowed freedom to grow through experience.
C. Parents should keep an eye on the activities their kids engage in.
D. Children should be given every chance to voice their opinions.
Part V Translation (15%)
Directions: For this part, you are required to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on the Answer Sheet.
那时，我是一个门门皆优的好学生，人人都喜欢我。但是，随着时间推移，情况发生了变化。毕业后我开始越来越频繁地吸食毒品，并且开始看不起那些不吸毒的人。我已经从一个不沾毒品的女孩变成了一个没有毒品就难以度日的女人。
