Section B

Directions: Read the following passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.

(A)

He built a small house on a piece of rough land. In the wet season there was a plentiful stream, and over the years he encouraged the dry forest to surround him with a thick screen. The greener it became the easier it was to forget the outside. In time Melio learnt how to live in spite of the difficulties up on that mountain shelf.

His only neighbours were a family group of Parakana Indians who, for reasons known only to themselves, took a liking to Melio. Their chief never looked closely at Melio and said to himself that this white man was as mad as a snake which chews off its own tail. The Parakanas taught Melio to catch fish with the help of a wild plant which made them senseless in the stream. It gave off a powerful drug when shaken violently through the water. They showed him how to hunt by laying traps and digging. In time Melio’s piece of land became a regular farm. He had wild birds, fat long-legged ones and thin chickens, and his corn and salted fish was enough to keep him stocked up through the wet season.

The Parakanas were always around him. He’d never admit it, but he could feel that the trees were like the rods of a prison; they were watching him. When they came to him, the Indians never entered his house with its roof of dried grass and leaves. They showed themselves by standing in the shade of the trees at the clearing’s edge. He was expected to cross the chicken strip towards them. Then they had a curious but charming habit of taking a pace back from him, just one step backwards into their green corridors. Melio could never persuade them to come any closer.

The group guessed at Melio’s hatred for his civilized brothers in the towns far away. They knew Melio would never invite any more white men up here. This pleased the Parakanas. It meant that traders looking for rubber and jewels would never reach them. Their Melio would see to that. They were safe with this man and his hatred.

65. Melio wanted the forest around him to become thick because the dense leaves ______.

A. reminded him of his home

B. prevented the Parakanas from watching him

C. helped him forget the world he hated

D. protected him from the rain

66. The chief’s comparison of Melio to a snake is intended to show that ______.

A. he did not trust Melio

B. it was unwise to get too close to Mlio

C. he believed Melio hated the Parakanas

D. he thought Melio was out of his mind

67. Melio kept himself alive during the rainy season by ______.

A. eating what he had in store

B. catching wild animals in traps

C. growing corn on his farm

C. fattening his chickens

(B)

Imagine for a moment what it would be like if all the markets, clothing stores, schools, doctors and other things just disappeared. Imagine that there were no neighborhoods or towns. What would life be like? The early settlers of this country didn’t know the luxury of having all these things.

The Spanish women who came with their families from Mexico to New Mexico long ago faced a life that was especially hard. They found nothing but empty country. The Spanish settlers formed towns and set up ranches. Women had key roles in this society. They served as doctors and teachers. They made many of the things they needed, including all their clothing. It was the wife of the head of the ranch, to whom the workers came with news both good and bad.

She was the first to learn of births and deaths, sicknesses or other misfortunes. The ranches and towns were far from any medical doctors. The women used their knowledge of plant medicine, passed down from mother to daughter, to gather and use plants from the mountains. Some women were midwives and delivered babies born in the area.

Some of the women added new discoveries to their knowledge of healing of old. For example, when smallpox broke out in the village of La Liedre, the wife of the head of the ranch tried to help the villagers with the newly discovered medicine. The people were very superstitious and didn’t want to try this new medicine. So she became godmother to many of the village children. Her value to the health and safety of the village was exactly a matter of life and death.

68. Life in Mexico’s early days ______.

A. centered around the mountains

B. required lots of luxuries

C. was easy for most people

D. had no modern conveniences

69. The women practiced medicine because ______.

A. doctors were far away

B. villages had too many babies

C. they couldn’t afford doctors

D. the men were unable to

70. People first refused smallpox medicine ______.

A. as it was unnecessary

B. because it cost too much

C. in fear of something new

D. because smallpox wasn’t serious

71. The main idea of this passage is that women in early Spanish settlements ______.

A. faced a hard life

B. had important, life-saving roles

C. had to treat smallpox

D. moved with their families frequently

(C)

Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved or damaged? Judging from the experiment of FrederickII in the 13th century it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue as he told the nurses to keep silent.

All the infants died before the first year. But clearly there was more than a mere problem of lacking language. What was missing was good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.

Today no serious lacking exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the clues and signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to pick up language rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again.

Scientists suggest that speech milestones are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are cases, where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high intelligence.

Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about Man’s brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables the child to connect the sight and feel of an object with the sound pattern that refers to the object.

72. FrederikII’s experiment aims at to prove that ______.

A. a child couldn’t live without a nurse

B. a child couldn’t live without food

C. mother tongue is a basic human need

D. language is a basic human need

73. If an infant reaches the rapid learning period, ______.

A. his mother should respond to his signals properly

B. he should respond to his mother’s signals quickly

C. his mother should be insensitive to the infant

D. the infant should be sensitive to his mother

74. According to specialists, normally, ______.

A. a child can do certain things with language at certain periods in his life

B. a child can do many things with language in his early life

C. a baby can speak his mother tongue without doubt

D. a baby can learn a language sooner or later

75. It is suggested that human beings ______.

A. are born with a language system

B. are born with a language acquiring brain

C. are enabled to tell sounds from objects

D. are enabled to connect sound pattern with object structures

Section C

Directions: read the following text and choose the most situation heading from A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

76.

The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of the first importance to a public man. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. The growth of alternative mental interests spend some time. The seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, it the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when needed.

77.

78.

79.

As for the people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire — for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.

80.

    First, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays, when they come, are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes, the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential.

Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.

Section D

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words.

Five years ago, David Smith wore an expensive suit to work every day. “I was a clothes addict,” he jokes. “I used to carry a fresh suit to work with me so I could change if my clothes got wrinkled.” Today David wears casual clothes-khaki pants and sports shirt to the office. He hardly ever wears a necktie. “I’m working harder than ever,” David says, “and I need to feel comfortable.”

More and more companies are allowing their office workers to wear casual clothes to work in the United States. The change from formal to casual office wear has been gradual. In the early 1990s, many companies allowed their employees to wear casual clothes on Friday (but only on Friday). This became known as “dress-down Friday” of “casual Friday”. “What started out as an extra one-day-a-week benefit for employees has really become an everyday thing. ” said business consultant Maisly Jones.

Why have so many companies started allowing their employees to wear casual clothes? One reason is that it’s easier for a company to attract new employees if it has a casual dress code. “A lot of young people don’t want to dress up for work,” says the owner of a software company, “so it’s hard to hire people if you have a conservative dress code.” Another reason is that people seem happier and more productive when they are wearing comfortable clothes. In a study conducted by Levi Strauss and Company, 85 percent of employers said that they believe that casual dress improves employee morale. Only 4 percent of employers said that casual dress has a negative impact on productivity. Supporters of casual office wear also argue that a casual dress code helps them save money. “Suits are expensive, if you have to wear one every day,” one person said. “For the same amount of money, you can buy a lot more casual clothes.”

81. Why did David Smith refer to himself as “a clothes addict”?

_______________________________________________.

82. David Smith wears casual clothes now, because _________________________________.

83. The majority of the employers said casual dress__________________________________.

84. According to this passage, what does it mean by a conservative dress code?

_______________________________________________.