四级模拟试题三十三

PART I DICTATION

Listen to the following passage. Altogether the passage will be read to you four times. During the first reading, which will be done at normal speed, listen and try to understand the meaning. For the second and third readings, the passage will be read sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase, with intervals of 15 seconds. The last reading will be done at normal speed again and during this time you should check your work. You will then be given 2 minutes to check through your work once more.

Now, listen to the passage.

PART II LISTENING COMPREHENSION

In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

SECTION A CONVERSATIONS

In this section you will hear several conversations. Listen to the conversations carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

Questions 1 to 3 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the conversation.

1. What is the topic of the conversation?
A. Course registry.
B. Class attendance.
C. Class preparation.
D. Learning problems.

2. What is the man’s suggestion to the woman?
A. Drop the class.
B. Register the class.
C. Take a remedy course.
D. Write a reading report.

3. What is the man going to do?
A. To take the exam.
B. To prepare for class.
C. To take with some students.
D. To change his teaching plan.

Questions 4 to 7 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the conversation.

4. What is the focus of the conversation?
A. Major selection.
B. Painting history.
C. Painting techniques.
D. Course consultation.

5. What is the major of the man?
A. Art.
B. English.
C. Chinese.
D. Chemistry.

6. What is the woman’s suggestion?
A. Take the course of painting.
B. Take the course of chemistry.
C. Invite his roommate to join the class.
D. Think twice before choosing a major.

7. What is the man going to do today?
A. Meet his roommate.
B. Sign up for the course.
C. Go shopping with his roommate.
D. Buy the brushes and paint himself.

Questions 8 to 10 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the conversation.

8. When did the accident happen?
A. In the morning.
B. At midday.
C. In the afternoon.
D. In the evening.

9. What was the cause of the accident?
A. Bad weather.
B. Human error.
C. Inadequate oil.
D. Poor quality radio.

10. What can be learned from the accident?
A. Adequate preparation for flight is important.
B. The weather has a great influence on air flight.
C. Communication between people is important.
D. Foreign language learning is a prerequisite for pilots.

SECTION B PASSAGES

In this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

Questions 11 to 13 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.

11. What is the topic of this passage?
A. Hand-washing.
B. Food preparing.
C. Disease infection.
D. Disease prevention.

12. According to the passage, hand-washing can prevent infectious diseases EXCEPT ______.
A. influenza
B. pinworms
C. eye diseases
D. the common cold

13. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. People should wash their hands after coughing.
B. It is necessary to use special anti-bacteria soap.
C. People should wash their hands after cleaning a baby.
D. Programs to increase hand-washing with soap are vital.

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.

14. Where does the National Museum of the American Indian lie?
A. In New York.
B. In Washington.
C. In South America.
D. In Central America.

15. What is the typical feature of the National Museum of the American Indian?
A. Creative objects.
B. Living cultures.
C. Diverse tradition show.
D. Multiple native communities.

16. Who (is) are important to the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian?
A. Native American Indians.
B. Native people in North America.
C. Government of Washington state.
D. The government of the United States.

17. Where does the passage come from?
A. A museum booklet.
B. A museum tour guide.
C. A historical book of museums.
D. A museum festival introduction.

Questions 18 to 20 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.

18. How old was Walt Whitman when he published his first book?
A. 24.
B. 26.
C. 36.
D. 37.

19. During the civil war, Whitman did the following things EXCEPT _______.
A. working for the government
B. working at army hospitals
C. taking care of the wounded
D. writing poems for the soldiers

20. Which work has the expression of Whitman’s idea of democracy?
A. Captain.
B. Leaves of Grass.
C. Ode to America.
D. Song of Myself.

SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

In this section, you will hear several news items. Listen to them carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

Questions 21 and 22 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the news.

21. Where was the present meeting held?
A. In Kyoto.
B. In Tokyo.
C. In Tianjin.
D. In Cancun.

22. What was the main reason for the obstruction of negotiations?
A. There was no agreement between countries.
B. There was severe protest for the climate meeting.
C. The United Stated has not offered enough financial support.
D. The United Stated attempted to change the nature of commitments.

Questions 23 and 24 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the news.

23. The talk between China and Turkey has covered the following fields EXCEPT _______.
A. cultural exchanges
B. trade and transport
C. education and technology
D. infrastructure and communications

24. China and Turkey have yielded rich fruits in the following fields in recent years EXCEPT _______.
A. tourism
B. trade volume
C. cultural exchanges
D. mutual political trust

Question 25 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 5 seconds to answer the question.
Now, listen to the news.

25. What is the focus of the news?
A. Debt crisis.
B. Terrorist threats.
C. European tourism.
D. Euro-American conflicts.

Questions 26-28 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the news.

26. According to the news, why millions of Haitians still live in poor conditions?
A. They could not get protection in the U.S.
B. They did not have access to the better necessities.
C. They did not get enough reliefs from the government.
D. They did not get the promised financial aid from the U.S.

27. Who has pledged financial aid for the rebuilding of Haiti?
A. Bill Gates.
B. Bill Clinton.
C. Hillary Clinton.
D. George W. Bush.

28. What did one U.S. senator say about the bill?
A. It’s necessary.
B. It’s not enough.
C. It’s ridiculous.
D. It’s thriftless.

Questions 29 and 30 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
Now, listen to the news.

29. How many victims were there in the train accidents?
A. 86.
B. 87.
C. 88.
D. 128.

30. Which of the following statements about the train accidents is NOT true?
A. There were two train accidents.
B. One accident happened in the morning.
C. The accidents happened on different days.
D. The deaths were gathered at the hospital.

PART III CLOZE

Decide which of the choices given below would best complete the passage if inserted in the corresponding blanks. 

      Life at the bottom is nasty, brutish and short. For this reason, heartless folk might (31)______ that people in the lower social classes will be more self-interested and less inclined (32)______ consider the welfare of others (33)______ upper-class individuals, who can (34)______ a certain noblesse oblige. A recent study, however, challenges this idea. Experiments by Paul Piff and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, reported this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, suggest precisely the (35)______. It is the poor, not the rich, who are willing to charity.
      In their first experiment, Dr. Piff and his team (36)______115 people. To start with, these volunteers were asked to engage (37)______ a series of fake activities, in order to create a (38)______ impression of the purpose of the research. Eventually, each was told he had been (39)______ with an anonymous partner (40)______ in a different room. Participants were given ten credits and (41)______ that their task was to decide how many of these credits they wanted to (42)______ for themselves and how many (if any) they wished to (43)______ to their partner. They were also told that the credits they had at the (44)______ of the game would be worth real money and (45)______ their partners would have no ability to (46)______ with the outcome.
      A week before the game was run, participants were asked their ethnic backgrounds, sex, age, frequency of (47)______ at religious services and socioeconomic status. During this part of the study, they were (48)______ with a drawing of a ladder with ten rungs on it. Each rung (49)______ people of different levels of education, income and occupational status. They were asked to place an “X” on the rung they felt corresponded to (50)______ they stood relative to others in their own community.

A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D. A. B. C. D.

PART IV GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

There are thirty sentences in this section. Beneath each sentence there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Choose one word or phrase that best completes the sentence.

51. — How did James escape from the prison?
      — Oh, he always manages ____ a tight situation.
A. to get out of
B. getting out of
C. to have got him out of
D. in getting out of


52. By the time I graduate from the Peking University, my friend, Lucy, ____ in Australia for one year.
A. will be staying
B. will have stayed
C. would have stayed
D. have stayed


53. ____ in the past, nowadays it is a favorite one for a wedding gown.
A. Unpopular has as white been
B. White has been as unpopular
C. Unpopular has been as white
D. Unpopular as white has been


54. As the shop owner found the assistants lazy in their job, these assistants ____ to quit the job.
A. have asked
B. were asked
C. had asked
D. had been asked


55. He ____ have been nervous because he walked back and forth constantly.
A. ought to
B. must
C. should
D. had to


56. My brother’s hair is dark, but it’s ____ mine when I was at his age.
A. no darker than
B. no more darker as
C. not dark more than
D. not darker as


57. ____ that it was going to rain, he took an umbrella with him.
A. Seeing
B. Saw
C. Seen
D. To see


58. Dr. Breeze was accused ____ overdose of sleeping pills for his patient so as to terminate the patient’s life before expected.
A. of providing
B. with providing
C. to have provided
D. to provide


59. These are the actors ____ to involve the audience to participate in the play.
A. whom it was the function
B. of whom the function was
C. whose function was
D. whose were the function


60. You can assign the task to ______ is capable and trustworthy.
A. whomever
B. who
C. whom
D. whoever


61. This ____ boy is Orson’s nephew.
A. Japanese handsome little
B. little handsome Japanese
C. little Japanese handsome
D. handsome little Japanese


62. Ultrasonic sounds produce pulsed signals ____ various metal drawbacks can be detected.
A. of which
B. for which
C. as a result of which
D. by means of which


63. Most water problems exist because adequate measures to prevent them ___ taken in the past.
A. was not
B. were not
C. were not being
D. being not


64. There is a general understanding among the members of the company that chief attention ____ to the effort which is expected to bring highest profit.
A. is given
B. gives
C. should be given
D. must be given


65. The reduction in interest rate ____ promote domestic investment.
A. means to
B. directs toward
C. is meant to
D. leads to


66. It should always be kept in mind that ____ decisions often lead to bitter regrets.
A. hasty
B. instant
C. prompt
D. rapid


67. The new washing machines are ____ at the rate of sixty a day.
A. turn up
B. turn down
C. turned out
D. turned in


68. Most importantly, such an experience helps ____ a heightened sensitivity and appreciation to one’s own cultures.
A. coach
B. forsake
C. foster
D. censor


69. Mary and I enjoyed the holiday ____ the expense.
A. except
B. besides
C. in addition to
D. except for


70. At first, the piece of evidence was ____ early in the investigation, but it turned out to be vital in convicting the man of murder.
A. insignificant
B. important
C. unsuitable
D. essential


71. Modern appliances ____ us from a good deal of household work, such as the washing machine frees us from doing the laundry.
A. escape
B. benefit
C. liberate
D. comfort


72. According to the statistics, continual exposure ____ noise of high intensity would result in loss of hearing.
A. of
B. with
C. to
D. by


73. The introduction of fabrics made from rayon, nylon and other ____ fibers has brought many benefits to our life.
A. manufactured
B. artificial
C. synthetic
D. manned


74. To make ____ clear, we have to look closely into its inner construction.
A. distinction
B. indication
C. recognition
D. constitution


75. An obvious change of women’s status in the society will ____ through the current law system.
A. probe
B. violate
C. permeate
D. grope


76. Other people’s advice would be ____ valuable to Jim who is now at his wit’s end.
A. exceedingly
B. exclusively
C. intensively
D. excessively


77. The old man used to keep all his tools and DIY equipment in a ____ in the garden.
A. barn
B. room
C. hut
D. shed


78. With one leg broken in the earthquake, he cannot even walk, ____ run.
A. let alone
B. that is to say
C. not to speak
D. not to say


79. Tom said that if we failed to act, we would find ourselves ____ in action not soon after.
A. paid back
B. paid for
C. paid up
D. paid off


80. Henry got paid by the hour, and he managed to keep his family with his pitiful ____.
A. salary
B. wages
C. stipend
D. payment

PART V READING COMPREHENSION

In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.

TEXT A

      Considering that anxiety makes your palms sweat, your heart race, your stomach turn somersaults, and your brain seize up like a car with a busted transmission, it’s no wonder people reach for the Xanax to vanquish it. But in a surprise, researchers who study emotion regulation — how we cope, or fail to cope, with the daily swirl of feelings — are discovering that many anxious people are bound and determined (though not always consciously) to cultivate anxiety. The reason, studies suggest, is that for some people anxiety boosts cognitive performance, while for others it actually feels comforting.
      In one recent study, psychologist Maya Tamir of Hebrew University in Jerusalem gave 47 undergraduates a standard test of neuroticism, which asks people if they agree with such statements as “I get stressed out easily.” She then presented the volunteers with a list of tasks, either difficult (giving a speech, taking a test) or easy (washing dishes), and asked which emotion they would prefer to be feeling before each. The more neurotic subjects were significantly more likely to choose feeling worried before a demanding task; non-neurotic subjects chose other emotions. Apparently, the neurotics had a good reason to opt for anxiety: when Tamir gave everyone anagrams to solve, the neurotics who had just written about an event that had caused them anxiety did better than neurotics who had recalled a happier memory. Among non-neurotics, putting themselves in an anxious frame of mind had no effect on performance.
      In other people, anxiety is not about usefulness but familiarity, finds psychology researcher Brett Ford of the University of Denver. She measured the “trait emotions” (feelings people tend to have most of the time) of 139 undergraduates, using a questionnaire that lists emotions and asks “to what extent you feel this way in general.” She then grouped the students into those characterized by “trait fear” (those who tended to be anxious, worried, or nervous), “trait anger” (chronically angry, irritated, or annoyed), and “trait happy” (the cheerful, joyful gang). Six months later, the volunteers returned to Ford’s lab. This time she gave them a list of emotions and asked which they wanted to experience. Not surprisingly, the cheerful bunch wanted to be happy. But in a shock she found that those with “trait fear” said they wanted to be worried and nervous — even though it felt subjectively unpleasant. (The “trait angry” students tended to prefer feeling the same way, too.) Wanting to feel an emotion is not the same thing as enjoying that emotion, points out neuroscientist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan, who discovered that wanting and liking are mediated by two distinct sets of neurotransmitters.
      In some cases, the need to experience anxiety can lead to a state that looks very much like addiction to anxiety. “There are people who have extreme agitation, but they can’t understand why,” says psychiatrist Harris Stratyner of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “Some people,” he says, “get addicted to feeling anxious because that’s the state that they’ve always known. If they feel a sense of calm, they get bored; they feel empty inside. They want to feel anxious.” Notice he didn’t say “like.”

81. According to the passage, why do many people deliberately cultivate anxiety?
A. Because their brain can work faster when feeling anxious.
B. Because they are better at regulating their emotions when feeling anxious.
C. Because their cognitive performance can be improved when feeling anxious.
D. Because they become more determined when feeling anxious.

82. The neurotic subjects usually tend to be easily ______ when confronted with challenging work.
A. agitated
B. frustrated
C. exasperated
D. irritated

83. Why do neurotic people consider anxiety helpful in some cases?
A. Because they will recall happier memory in an anxious state.
B. Because they can perform the task better in an anxious state.
C. Because they will feel excited in an anxious state.
D. Because they can fully utilize their potentials in an anxious state.

84. Research suggests that “trait fear” subjects ______.
A. want to experience anxiety
B. like to experience anxiety
C. want to experience angry
D. like to experience angry

85. According to the passage, why do some people get addicted to feel anxious?
A. Because they feel empty inside.
B. Because it made them relax.
C. Because they are used to it.
D. Because they would feel calm.

TEXT B

      “If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” And if not? Well, what exactly is it for? The production and consumption of music is a big part of the economy. The first use to which commercial recording, in the form of Edison’s recorders, was to bring music to the living rooms and picnic tables of those who could not afford to pay live musicians. Today, people are so surrounded by other people’s music that they take it for granted, but as little as 100 years ago singsongs at home, the choir (教堂的唱诗班) in the church and violinists in the pub were all that most people heard.
      Other appetites, too, have been satisfied even to excess by modern business. Food far beyond the simple needs of stomachs, and sex far beyond the needs of reproduction, bombard (大肆抨击) the modern man and woman, and are eagerly consumed. But these excesses are built on obvious appetites. What appetite drives the sharp increase of music to the point where the average American teenager spends 1½-2½ hours a day — an eighth of his waking life — listening to it?
      Well, that fact — that he, or she, is a teenager — supports one assumption about the function of music. Around 40% of the lyrics of popular songs speak of love, sexual relationships and sexual behaviour. The Shakespearean theory, that music is at least one of the foods of love, has a strong claim to be true. The more mellifluous (优美动听的) the singer, the more proficient the harpist (竖琴师), the more mates he attracts.
      A second idea that is widely spread is that music binds groups of people together. The resulting unity, its supporters suggest, might have helped bands of early humans to thrive at the expense of those that were less musical.
      Both of these ideas argue that musical ability evolved specifically — that it is, if you like, a virtual organ as precisely crafted to its purpose as the heart or the spleen (脾脏). The third hypothesis, however, is that music is a cross between an accident and an invention. It is an accident because it is the consequence of abilities that evolved for other purposes. And it is an invention because, having thus come into existence, people have bent it to their will and made something they like from it.

86. This passage mainly talks about ______.
A. the production of music
B. the consumption of music
C. the function of music
D. the popularity of music

87. What’s the difference between music and other appetites?
A. Other appetites build on obvious needs, while music is not.
B. Music is related to love and sex, while other appetites are not.
C. Other appetites build on vague needs, while music is not.
D. Music is related to sex and food, while other appetites are not.

88. According to the passage, which kind of music attracts teenagers the most?
A. Music about sex and food.
B. Music about love and sex.
C. Music about love and unity.
D. Music about sex and appetites.

89. According to the Shakespearean theory, mellifluous music easily attracts ______.
A. teenagers
B. workers
C. lovers
D. patients

90. What’s the music exactly for according to this reading text?
A. For people’s appetites both for love, sex and food.
B. For people’s psychological and spiritual support.
C. For people’s biological as well as spiritual needs.
D. For people’s appetites both for support and music.

TEXT C

      What is the IQ of a chimpanzee? Or a worm? Or a game-show-winning computer program? Or even an alien from the planet Zaarg who can learn any human language in a day, can beat chess grandmasters ten at a time and can instantly factor the products of large prime numbers? At the moment it is impossible to say. IQ tests depend on language, and even Watson, a computer program that beat two human contestants in a special edition of “Jeopardy!” (an American quiz show), does not have a perfect command of English. In any case there is, at the moment, no meaningful scale on which non-human intelligence can be compared with the human sort.
      The most famous test for artificial intelligence is that devised by Alan Turing, a British computing pioneer. To pass the Turing test, and thus be considered intelligent, a program must fool a human being into believing that it is another human being. But the Turing test still requires the program to share a language with the tester and, because it is all or nothing, cannot be used to rank different forms of artificial intelligence against one another.
      José Hernández-Orallo of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, in Spain, and David Dowe of Monash University, in Australia, think they can do better than this. They believe not only that a universal scale of intelligence can be devised, but also that it can be assessed without reference to language. If they are right, an insult like “bird-brained” will, in the future, be finely marked.
      Dr. Hernández-Orallo and Dr. Dowe, both computer scientists, propose to make their measurement by borrowing a concept called Kolmogorov complexity from information theory, a branch of computer science. The Kolmogorov complexity of a computer’s output is the shortest possible program (measured in the binary digits that lie at the bottom of all computer code) that could produce that output. On this measure, an entity’s intelligence would be measured by the Kolmogorov complexity of the most complex tests it can solve — a clear, numerical value. In practice, calculating the true Kolmogorov complexity of a system is almost impossible. But an approximation can be made. And that, the researchers reckon, will be good enough.
      The actual tests would employ the well-honed methods of operant conditioning, developed initially on pigeons, in which the test subject has first to work out what is going on by trial and error. As in operant conditioning, correct responses would be rewarded — by money, perhaps, for a human being; by bananas for a chimpanzee or by the numerical value itself for an appropriately programmed computer.
      Dr. Hernández-Orallo and Dr. Dowe do not plan to use existing games. Instead they are employing a computer to generate novel games and patterns. Their approach eliminates human bias. It also allows them to generate tests with any level of complexity they like — even ones that are far beyond the ability of humans to complete. When it comes to testing the tests, then, aliens from the planet Zaarg will be particularly welcome to apply.

91. According to the passage, why is it impossible to measure non-human intelligence?
A. Because non-human intelligence cannot pass IQ test.
B. Because non-human intelligence does not have a good command of English.
C. Because non-human intelligence does not possess language ability.
D. Because there is no comparable scale between human and non-human intelligence.

92. Which of the following statements is true about the Turing test?
A. It does not require any common language background.
B. It is specifically designed for artificial intelligence.
C. It can be used to compare intelligence between different forms of artificial intelligence.
D. It tests how smart a non-human intelligence is in deceiving human beings.

93. It is hoped that with José Hernández-Orallo and David Dowe’s work, people can do all the following EXCEPT ______ in the future.
A. devising an intelligence test that can be universally used
B. testing the intelligence of different forms regardless of their language background
C. clearly marking the scale of intelligence on different forms
D. getting rid of insult like “bird- brained”

94. The award for a computer when providing correct responses will be ______.
A. the numerical value
B. an appropriate program
C. money
D. banana

95. Why does the author say that “When it comes to testing the tests, then, aliens from the planet Zaarg will be particularly welcome to apply” at the end of the passage?
A. Because the novel games and patterns are the perfect IQ test for aliens from the planet Zaarg.
B. Because aliens from the planet Zaarg are the most intelligent forms so far.
C. Because the complexity of the test can even surpass any human beings’ intelligence.
D. Because the novel games and patterns are quite challenging for aliens from the planet Zaarg.

TEXT D

      David Vann’s first collection of short stories may have been brought out by a small university press and with a tiny print-run, but it cemented his reputation as a writer who could use the American landscape as a metaphor to tremendous effect. Published in 2008, Legend of a Suicide was immediately compared with the work of Wallace Stegner and Cormac McCarthy, earlier literary mythologists of the American frontier. Sukkwan Island, the novel that makes up three-quarters of the book, won an array of literary awards on both sides of the Atlantic．
      Mr. Vann’s new book and first novel, Caribou Island, has thus been eagerly awaited. It does not disappoint.
      Mr. Vann returns to the Alaska of his upbringing, the unforgiving Kenai Peninsula, where his own father killed himself, his stepmother’s mother killed her husband and herself and the setting for Sukkwan Island. As in Legend of a Suicide, Gary, the hero of Caribou Island, is trying to escape a lifetime of failures, with one epic new venture: building a log cabin, which barely keeps out the wind, with an outhouse and no running water, where he hopes to live year-round. With him is his wife, Irene. Haunted by a tragedy in her own past, fearful that if she doesn’t help Gary he will leave her, she hauls logs out to Caribou Island in good weather and terrible storms, in sickness and in health, to patch up their marriage while building the kind of cabin that had brought them to Alaska in the first place.
      Back on the mainland, Gary’s and Irene’s son, Mark, fishes occasionally for a living, but mostly he lies about smoking weed. Their daughter, Rhoda, by contrast, is a hard-working vet who cares for animals. Rhoda has moved in with Jim, the local dentist, and is dreaming of a beach wedding in Hawaii. Her perfect day, it turns out, is Jim’s idea of a nightmare.
      Mr. Vann uses two sequences to transform what could be another routine tale of small-town life, hurling the book into the outer darkness of the heart. A casual encounter with a travelling trust-fund brat persuades Jim that, although Rhoda barely has the ring on her finger, what will give his life real meaning is years of sex with receptionists and dental nurses. He is 41 and feels the muffin tops a-piling up, so he buys a running machine and gives up drink and puddings. After his workout he eats a salad Rhoda has prepared for him. All he can do afterwards is crash. The marriage doesn’t have a chance.
      Meanwhile Rhoda’s mother is doing back-breaking work on her husband’s cabin. “His life was the given, beyond question. Hers was the accompaniment; it didn’t really matter.” Gary, thinking of Catullus, knows that “in her bride’s heart revolves a maze of sorrow”, but he says nothing. Desperate, Irene comes down with a terrible, and inexplicable, headache that leaves her shrunken and exhausted. Even the prescription painkillers Rhoda steals from the vet’s practice do nothing to alleviate her suffering. As the marriage breaks down, Gary’s ramshackle building begins also to disintegrate. Having been constructed in a self-pitying rage, there are gaps between the logs, untrue angles, a doorframe angrily nailed to the outside.
      Mr. Vann’s brilliance as a writer lies in his willingness to expose everything — all the worst that Gary and Irene think of one another, those silent imaginings born of icy fury that can freeze a marriage to death. The novel’s conclusion is desolate, and inevitable. Though surprising when it appears, Mr. Vann’s ending is, on reflection, so obvious as to make the reader wonder why he never saw it coming. A writer to read and reread; a man to watch carefully.

96. What is this passage most likely to be?
A. Recommendation for a new book Legend of a Suicide.
B. Recommendation for a new book Caribou Island.
C. An advertisement for a new book Legend of a Suicide.
D. An advertisement for a new book Caribou Island.

97. Which of the following statements is NOT true about Caribou Island?
A. Its author is a literary mythologist of the American frontier.
B. It won an array of literary awards for the author.
C. It is Mr. Vann’s new book and first novel.
D. It’s the continuation of the book Legend of a Suicide.

98. Why is the author’s birthplace “unforgiving”?
A. Because he had a miserable childhood there.
B. Because the living conditions there are harsh.
C. Because he failed to escape a lifetime of failures there.
D. Becaise he made unforgiving mistakes there when he was young.

99. According to the author, it is Mr. Vann’s ______ that have (has) made this routine story brilliant.
A. far-reaching imagination
B. amazing writing skills
C. unexpected conclusion
D. alluring plot

100. Basically the book is about ______.
A. marriage
B. miracles
C. misfortunes
D. families

PART VI WRITING

SECTION A COMPOSITION

In the course of urbanization, we often find ourselves confronted with the old building problem. Some people think we should pull down the old houses and buildings in the way; however, others argue that they are cultural heritages and should be protected. What is your opinion? Write a composition of about 200 words.

You are to write in three parts. In the first part, state specifically what your opinion is. In the second part, provide one or two reasons to support your opinion. In the last part, bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or make a summary. You should supply an appropriate title for your composition.

Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the instructions may result in a loss of marks.

SECTION B NOTE-WRITING

Write a note of about 50-60 words based on the following situation:
      Your cousin Sam has just received the letter of admission from Tsinghua University. Write him a note of congratulations and offer to invite him to dinner sometime.