Comprehension(25 minutes)

Section A Directions:In this section, you will hear three news reports.

At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions.

Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once.

After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices

marked A), B), C）and D).

Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.

Questions 1 and 2 will be based on the following news item.

News Item 1

As the Dallas Cowboys continued to lose games this season,

observers believed it was only a matter of time before team owner Jerry Jones made a change.

That change came late Monday, one day after the Cowboys suffered their second worse loss in franchise history,

a 45-7 trouncing by the Green Bay Packers in a nationally televised game.

Jones named Cowboys` offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to take over the remaining eight

games of 16-game 2010-2011 National Football League regular season.

“A decision has been made to move forward with a new person in

the head coaching position with the Dallas Cowboys,”

 said Jones.“Jason Garrett has been named interim head coach

and he will replace Wade Phillips effective immediately.”

Phillips was in his fourth season with Dallas,

which is languishing at the bottom of its division and conference standings.

The Cowboys share the secondworst record in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers,

 ahead only of the winless Buffalo Bills.

The 44 year old Garrett said he is excited to be the new Dallas Cowboys head coach,

but acknowledged there is a lot of work to be done by all.

1.1.The Dallas Cowboys suffered .

2. has the worst record in the National Football League history.

Questions 3 and 4 will be based on the following news item.

News Item 2

On November eleventh, nineteen eighteen,

a truce was signed ending the hostilities of World War One.

The Central Powers—led by Germany—had lost.The Allies—led by Britain,

 France and the United States—had won.

The war lasted four years.It took the lives of ten million people.

It left much of Europe in ruins.It was described as “the war to end all wars.”

This week in our series, Barbara Klein and Doug Johnson tell

about President Woodrow Wilson and his part in events after the war.

BARBARA KLEIN: The immediate task was to seek agreement on terms of a peace treaty.

The Allies were filled with bitter anger.They demanded a treaty that would punish Germany severely.

They wanted to make Germany weak by destroying its military and industry.

And they wanted to ruin Germany`s economy by making it pay all war damages.

Germany, they said, must never go to war again.

President Woodrow Wilson of the United States did not agree completely

with the other Allies.He wanted a peace treaty based on justice,

not bitterness.He believed that would produce a lasting peace.

President Wilson had led negotiations for a truce to end the hostilities of World War One.

Now, he hoped to play a major part in negotiations for a peace treaty.

To be effective, he needed the full support of the American people.

3.In World War One, the two sides in hostility were .

4.Which of the following saying is not true about President Woodrow Wilson?

Questions 5 and 7 will be based on the following news item.

News Item 3

At Boonsboro High School in the small, rural town of Boonsboro,

 Maryland, an experiment in education is under way.

Although most classes have a mix of boys and girls at various academic levels,

 high achieving students in 9th and 10th grades are placed

in single sex classes for their core subjects of English, math, science and social studies.

“What we really want to do is take that top group of kids and take

 them to the very highest level they can achieve here so that they`re prepared for college,”

 Rebecca Brown is a student achievement specialist at Boonsboro High.She chooses the kids

who make up what the school calls the Academy.

“By keeping them together in the single gender classes,

 they eliminate some of the distractions, if you will, that occur in a typical high school.”

Incoming students from middle school who have high grades and test scores,

 strong teacher recommendations, and involvement in extracurricular activities are invited to join.

But the Academy program is optional, and Boonsboro High`s principal Peggy Pugh

explains that their parents make the decision.

“This is not something that we have to push.

This is something that people are interested in,”

 says Peggy.“We invite them.We`ll have people call and ask

‘questions and they have the right to say ‘No, I don`t think that`s for my child` or

‘ That`s not an experience I want,` and there are other people who say

‘Okay, that sounds like an interesting opportunity for my student.’”

5.High achieving students in 9th and 10th grades are placed in single sex classes for their  subjects

6.Keeping students in the single gender classes can  some of the distractions.

7.Which of the following statements is true according to the news?

Section B

Directions:In this section, you will hear two long conversations.

At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions.

Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once.

After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from

the four choices marked A), B), C）and D).

Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.

Now you will haer the two long conversations

Conversation One

M: Mrs. Dawson, thanks very much for coming down to the station.

I just like to go over some of the things that you told police officer Parmer at the bank.

W: All right.

M: Well.Could you describe the man who robbed the bank for this report that we`re filling out here?

Now, anything at all that you can remember would be extremely helpful to us.

W: Well, just, I can only remember basically what I said before.

M: That`s all right.

W:The man was tall, six foot, and he had dark hair, and he had moustache.

M:Very good. All right, did he have any other distinguishing marks?

W: Um, no, none that I can remember.

M: Do you remember how old he was by any chance?

W: Well, I guess around 30, maybe younger, give or take a few years.

M: Mm, all right. Do you remember anything about what he was wearing?

W: Yes, yes, he had in a dark sweater, a solid color.

M: OK. Um, anything else that strikes you at the moment?

W: I remember he was wearing a light shirt under the sweater. Yes, yes.

M: All right. Mrs. Dawson, I really appreciate what you`ve been through today.

I`m just going to ask you to look at some photographs before you leave,

if you don`t mind. It won`t take very long. Can you do that for me?

W: Oh, of course.

M: Would you like to step this way with me, please?

W: OK, sure.

M: Thank you.

8：Where does this conversation most probably take place?

9: What do we learn about the woman?

10:What did the suspect look like?

11:What did the man finally asked the woman to do?

Conversation 2

W: Good morning,I`m calling about the job that was in the paper last night.

M: Well, could you tell me your name?

W: Candidate Forest.

M: Oh yes. What exactly is it that interests you about the job?

W: Well, I thought it was just right for me.

M: Really? Um… Could you tell me a little about yourself?

W: Yes. I`m 23. I`ve been working abroad.

M: Where exactly have you been working?

W: In Geneva.

M: Oh, Geneva. And what were you doing there?

W: Secretarial work. Previous to that, I was at university.

M: Which university was that?

W: The University of Manchester. I`ve got a degree in English.

M: You said you`ve been working in Geneva.

 Do you have any special reason for wanting to come back?

W: I thought it would be nice to be near to the family.

M: I see, and how do you see yourself developing in this job?

W: Well, I`m ambitious.

 I do hope that my career as a secretary will lead me eventually into management.

M: I see. You have foreign languages?

W: French and Italian.

M: Well, I think the best thing for you to do is to reply a writing to the advertisement.

W: Can`t I arrange for an interview now?

M: Well, I`m afraid we must wait until all the applications are in,

in writing, and we`ll then decide on the short list.

 If you are on the short list, of course we should see you.

W: Oh, I see.

M: I look forward to receiving your application in writing in a day or two.

W: Oh, yes, yes, certainly.

M: Ok, thank you very much. Goodbye.

W: Thank you. Goodbye.

12:How did the woman get to know about the job vacancy?

13:Why did the woman find the job appealing?

14:What had the woman been doing in Geneva?

15: What was the woman asked to do in the end?

Section C. Directions:

In this section, you will hear three short passages.

At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions.

Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.

After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C）and D).

Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

One of the greatest heartbreaks for fire fighters occurs when they fail

 to rescue a child from a burning building because the child,

 frightened by smoke and noise,

hides under a bed or in a closet and is later found dead.

 Saddest of all is when children catch a glimpse of the masked fire fighter

but hide because they think they have seen a monster. To prevent such tragedies,

firefighter Eric Velez gives talks to children in his community,

explaining that they should never hide during a fire.

He displays fire fighters` equipment, including the oxygen mask,

which he encourages his listeners to play with and put on. “If you see us,”

 Velez tells them, “don`t hide! We are not monsters. We have come to rescue you.”

 Velez gives his presentations in English and Spanish.

 Growing up in San Francisco, he learnt Spanish from his immigrant parents.

 Velez and other fire fighters throughout North America,

who give similar presentations, will never know how many lives they save through their talks.

But it`s a fact that informative speaking saves lives. For example,

several months after listening to an informative speech,

Pete Gentry in North Carolina rescued his brother who is choking on food,

by using the method taught by student speaker, Julie Paris.  

In addition to saving lives, informative speakers help people learn new skills,

 solve problems and acquire fascinating facts about the exciting world in which they live.

16:Why did some children trapped in the burning building hide from masked firefighters?

17:What does this passage tell us about firefighter Eric Velez?

18:What do we learn about Pete Gentry?

19:What message is the speaker trying to convey?

Passage 2

Some people want to make and save a lot of money in order to retire early.

I see people pursuing higher paying and increasingly demanding careers to accomplish this goal.

They make many personal sacrifices in exchange for income today.

 The problem is that tomorrow might not come.

 Even if it all goes according to plan,

 will you know how to be happy when you are not working

if you spend your entire life making money? More importantly,

who will be around for you to share your leisure time with?

At the other extreme are people who live only for today.

 Why bother saving when I might not be here tomorrow, they argue.

The danger of this approach is that tomorrow may come after all.

And most people don`t want to spend all their tomorrows working for a living.

The earlier neglect of saving, however,

 makes it difficult not to work when you are older.

You may be surprise to hear me say that if you must pick an extreme

 I think it`s better to pick the spendall approach.

 As long as you don`t mind continuing to work,

assuming your health allows, you should be OK.

 At least, you are making use of your money,

and hopefully deriving value and pleasure from it.

Postponing doing what you love and being with people

 you love until retirement can be a mistake.

 It may never come. Retirement can be a great time for some people.

 For others, it is a time of boredom, loneliness and poor health.

20: Why do some people pursue higher pay and demanding careers?

21: What is the danger facing people who live only for today?

22: What does the speaker seem to advocate?

Passage 3

Imagine that someone in your neighborhood broke the law,

and the judge put the whole neighborhood under suspicion.

How fair will that be? Well, it happens everyday to high schoolers.

 Just because some students have stolen things in shops,

 all of us are treated like thieves.

Even though I`d never steal.

Store employees looked at me like I`m some kind of hardened criminal.

 For example, during one lunch period, my friend Denny

and I went to the Graben Gore Restaurant to have a hotdog.

 We arrived to find a line of students waiting outside.

A new sign in the window told the story. “No more than two students at a time”.

 After 15 minutes, we finally got in.

 But the store manager laid the evil eye on us.

I asked him about the new sign, and he said,

“You kids are stealing too much stuff.”

You kids? Too much stuff? We were not only assumed to be thieves,

but brilliant, greedy thieves. The most annoying thing though,

is the way employees watched my friends and me.

It`s horrible. Once, at a drug store,

I was looking around and found a guy standing on a large box,

stocking the shelves. He was watching my hands,

 more than he was watching his own.

 I showed him that my hands were empty.

 He got down off his box and rushed off,

 as if he was going to get the store manager.

How crazy is that!

23:What does the speaker find to be unfair?

24:What measure did the Graben Gore Restaurant take to stop stealing?

25:What happened in a drug store that greatly annoyed the speaker?