Part I Writing （30 minutes）
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled How long should the national holiday be? You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.

1. 有些人认为长假好，有些人认为短假好

2. 我认为......

3. 我建议有关部门……

How long should the national holiday be?

Part II Reading (skimming and scanning) (15 minutes)

Directions：In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For question 1-7,choose the best answer from the four choices marked A）,B）,C）,and D）.For questions 8-10,complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

The Modern Olympic Games

The Modern Olympic Games might have remained just a part of history without the dream of one Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin. Coubertin believed that sport and exercise were very important for the health and happiness of every man and also for the nation. He therefore tried, in 1892, to interest other Frenchmen in his dream of starting a modern form of the early Greek Games. His ideas were strongly criticized by many people, who did not really understand what he was trying to do. It is perhaps sad that the great work Pierre de Coubertin did to bring back the Games was never properly recognized during his lifetime. Gradually, however, people all over the world became interested in his ideas and at a meeting in Paris in 1894, with representatives from twelve different countries; plans were made to hold the first modern Games in Athens in 1899.

Organizing the first modern Games, however, was not without problems. The Greek government was unhappy with the decision to hold the Games in Athens, as they had serious economic problems at the time and did not feel they were in a position to spend the necessary money. It seemed therefore that the Games would be finished before they had even begun. Prince Constantine of Greece, however, gave his support to Coubertin and the newly-formed Olympic Committee and other rich Greeks soon followed his example. Enough money was collected in Greece and abroad to build a new stadium and pay all the other costs.

On 5th April, 1896, a crowd of over 60 000 people watched the King of Greece open the first modern Olympic Games. There were, however, very few competitors － only two hundred and eighty-five. Australia, Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, were the only countries to send athletes to the Games and most of the athletes who did come had to pay for their own travel and other costs. There were ten sports in the first program － cycling, gymnastics, tennis, swimming, athletics, fencing, weight-lifting, rowing, wrestling and shooting; there were also other non-sporting events, such as concerts and ballet, just as there had been at the early Games.

At the first modern Olympics almost all the gold medals were won by American sportsmen, but the most famous of all the first medal winners was a young Greek named Spyros Louis, who came from a small village in the mountains near Athens. It was he who won the long and difficult race, the Marathon, and gave the Greeks the national win they had hoped for.

The Greeks would have been happy to keep the Games in Greece but Coubertin believed strongly that the Olympics should be truly international and would not allow this to happen. It was therefore decided to hold the next Games in Paris in 1900. Sadly, however, the Paris Games and the following Games, held in St. Louis, America, in 1904, were poor examples of Coubertin's dream and Coubertin himself did not even travel to the St. Louis Games. For these two Games were more like circus shows than serious international sports meetings. Only fifteen non-Americans went to the 1904 Games, mainly because the high travel costs prevented others from competing. Olympic events were mixed with other sports and events, and the Games were organized to continue over many months, so that as much money as possible could be made by the organizers from the selling of tickets.

It was not until 1908, when the Games were held in London, that international rules and distances were introduced；until then the events had been the decision of the organizing nation alone. The London Games were far better organized than any of the other modern Games but it took many more years before Coubertin's dream of a truly international meeting of sportsmen became a reality. It was necessary to make many changes before the Olympic Games became as well-organized and as popular as they are today.

Since 1896 the Games have been held every four years, except for a break during the years of the two World Wars. Gradually the number of competitors who take part in each Games has grown and so has the number of countries. In 1896, only thirteen countries were represented and only two hundred and eighty-five competitors took part. Today, however, as many as one hundred and twenty-two countries send athletes to the Games and more than seven thousand men and women come to the Games to take part. In recent years, the number of events has grown to twenty-one, eleven of which are also open to women.

It is interesting that Coubertin, whose ideas were born in the late nineteenth century, probably never imagined that women would ever play a part in the new Olympics. Women had never competed in the early Greek Games; indeed, for many years they were not even allowed to watch. In modern times, the London Games in 1908 were the first in which women took a serious part － 36 women came to the Games to compete. The first woman to win an Olympic event was the British Tennis Player, Charlotte Cooper, who won a tennis event in 1900. From 1908, however, the number of events began to grow with the introduction of ladies’ gymnastics. Athletics events for women were introduced in 1928 at the Games held in Amsterdam. Today, women are as highly-trained and as fit as men. Although in almost every sport women and men compete separately, in horse-riding events they compete against each other and women have shown over the years that they are just as good.

The International Olympic Committee, whose home is in Lausanne in Switzerland, is responsible for all the important decisions of the Olympic Movement. The members of this committee are chosen not by their governments but by members already on the committee and they are therefore above politics or group interests. Most of the members are simply rich men who wish to keep Coubertin’s ideas alive. Not every country is represented, therefore, because this would mean more than 120 members and no decisions would ever be made.

However, each country must form a National Olympic Committee before it is allowed to send competitors to the games and this committee must be recognized by the International Olympic Committee. At present, more than 136 countries have formed such a committee. The National Committees are responsible for organizing the national teams and for deciding which competitors to send. Competitors cannot choose to go to the Games － they must be chosen and this means competing against their own countrymen. It is not even enough to be the best in the country, for each competitor must be able to reach the standard expected for entry to the Games. These standards change each year as sportsmen and sportswomen improve. Some countries are not able to send all the competitors they would like to, even if they have reached the expected standard, because of the cost. The National Committee must then decide whether to send the competitors who have the most chance of winning or whether, instead, to send competitors to represent each sport even though some of them have little hope of doing well.

Not only the competitors but also the team manager must be paid for. The manager is an extremely important member of the team；he is responsible for the competitors while they are at the Games and his job includes, for example, getting the competitors to each event on time and helping with medical or personal problems. Most countries ask the people for money to help pay for the costs of travel and training. A lot of money is given by businesses and companies who also give, for example, clothes, shoes and uniforms.

The city where the Games are to be held is chosen by the International Olympic Committee；this is usually decided five years before the Games are to take place. Several cities may wish to hold the Games in any one year and the Committee decides only after it has listened to and seen the arguments and plans of each city. Once chosen, the city then has five years to prepare.

1. Coubertin planned to hold the first modern Olympic Games in_________ in Athens.

2. The competitors of the first Olympic Games came from all of the following countries EXCEPT__________.

4. According to the passage, the most successful modern Olympic Games was the one held in_________

5. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

7. What do we learn about the International Olympic Committee (IOC)?

10. Every city chosen to hold the Olympic Games usually have___ to prepare.

Part III Listening Comprehension (35mins)

Section A

Directions: In part A, you will hear short conversations between two people. After each conversation, you will hear a question about the conversation. The questions and the questions will not be repeated. After you hear a question, read the four possible answers in your test book and choose the best answer. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen.

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Questions 19-21 are based on the conversation you have just heard

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Questions 22-25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

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Section B

Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 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 the Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

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Passage Two

Questions 29-32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

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Passage Three

Questions 33-35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

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Section C

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

   　The Romans built great “aqueducts” to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities. Many of these aqueducts are still standing today. The Roman (36) _____even set up a (37)___ health service. They built the first great public hospitals in Europe, and they paid doctors to look after poor people.

When the Roman Empire fell to pieces, these (38) _____ methods of treatment (39) _____ from most of Europe, for more than a thousand years. People went back to the old ways. They lived in dirty conditions, which helped to cause diseases; and they asked God to cure the (40) _____. They shut up (41) _____ sick people in prisons. Or they burnt them alive because they were supposed to have (42) _____ powers. But the work of the Greek and Roman doctors was not lost.

　　Over a thousand years ago, the Arabs moved into many of the Mediterranean countries. They took big parts of the old (43)_____ lands. (44) ______________________________ Arab doctors themselves made many new discoveries.

(45)___________________________________________ Slowly, European doctors discovered again the things that the Greeks and Romans had known so long ago. (46) ____________________________

Part IV Reading comprehension (reading in depth) (25 minutes)

Section A

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 choices. Each choice in bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.

The song “Happy birthday to you” is sung all over the world just before the birthday boy or girl blows out the candles on the cake.

It is so simple that children as young as three can sing it without ___47___. The song, with its ___48___ title “Good Morning to You”, was written in 1893 by the two sisters, Mildred and Patty Smith Hill. They were the daughters of a ___49___ Kentucky couple, who believed in female education at a time---the mid-nineteenth century--- when it was still a ___50___ idea and who trained their two daughters to be schoolteachers. They were long involved in elementary education.

A birthday cake with ___51___ candles is also indispensable at one's birthday party. It may derive, ___52___, from the ancient Greek practice of offering to Artemis, goddess of the moon, a round honey cake into which a candle was stuck. After German bakers ___53___ the modern birthday cake in the Middle Ages, a similar ___54___ was adopted for happiness at birthdays.

The candle-blowing-out custom may be associated with double meaning at birthdays. Some people believe that each birthday is another step toward the end, and what we ___55___ at birthday gatherings is not only our growth, but our transience. Thus, candles at birthdays are ___56___ of life and death, hopes and fears, increase and loss, and so on.

A) invented I) original

B) accelerate J) novel

C) old K) apparently

D) symbols L) burning

E) hesitation M) prevented

F) progressive N) custom

G) celebrate O) substitute

H) distantly

Section B

Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.

People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions vehicles,” but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants most all use fire to make it. Aside from the few folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something  usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.

In other words, those “zero-emissions” cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just the coal is burned somewhere else so it looks clean. It is not. It’s as if the California Greens are covering their eyes “If I can’t see it, it’s not happening.” Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat  at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.

A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far so electric cars burn more fuel than gas-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes, or geothermal, or hydro, or solar, or wind, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don’t use much of those energy sources.

In addition, electric cars’ batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it’s a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.

57. What does “clueless” mean in paragraph 2?

58. According to the passage, why the California Greens hold the idea “If I can’t see it, it’s not happening.”?

59. The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our car run __________.

60. Compared with cars using gas, electric cars __________

61. It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

Passage Two

Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.

Rising global carbon dioxide levels tied to global warming may not be as crucial in determining the composition of plant communities as other, localized climate changes.

"Nobody really knows what the increases in carbon dioxide are going to entail in terms of future changes in vegetation types," said Mark Brenner, a University of Florida assistant professor of paleolimnology, the study of ancient lakes. "It looks like climate changes in different areas may be more important than carbon dioxide, at least carbon dioxide by itself," he said.

Brenner’s research team based their conclusions on an analysis of sediment from two lake bottoms, one in northern Mexico and one in northern Guatemala. The researchers used new techniques that allowed them to analyze only the remains of land plants, specifically their leaf waxes. By measuring the composition of the leaf waxes, the researchers were able to distinguish two broad categories of plants living in these areas -- so-called C3 and C4 plants, which have different photosynthetic（光合作用） processes. Many C4 plants are tropical grasses, while most tropical trees are C3 plants. The researchers analyzed sediments（沉积物） deposited over the last 27,000 years, from the last ice age to the current geological period. Over this period, there was a worldwide, relatively uniform increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Brenner said that if carbon dioxide played the major role in determining plant composition, one would assume that analysis of the sediments would reveal very similar changes in relative abundance of C3 and C4 plants in the two places over the study period. But, in fact, the researchers found that trends in the two types of plants were different at the two locations. The changes were related not with carbon dioxide levels, but with shifts in rainfall. "The result appears to be that climate factors, especially moisture availability, determine whether C4 or C3 plants dominate in an area, not carbon dioxide," Brenner said.

Many scientists believe global warming will cause major variation in local climates worldwide, with some wet areas becoming dry and dry areas becoming wet. If that happens, it could have more impact on relative C3 versus C4 plant distribution than the rising carbon dioxide levels.

62. What can be inferred in the first paragraph?

63. What is Mark Brenner?

64. According to the third paragraph, which one is NOT true?

65. Why, in the 4th paragraph, the researchers found that trends in C3 and C4 plants were different at the two locations?

66. What’s the main idea of the passage?

Part V Cloze (15 minutes)

Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D) on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Ever since the Mayflower dropped anchor in 1620, American settlers have migrated west, clearing the land of trees to make way for farms, homes and factories. Since then, nearly all the forests of the Eastern United States have been chopped 67 at one time or another.

Why, then, of the approximately 160 kinds of birds that 68 the area from the Atlantic coast to the central plains and from Maine 69 Florida, have only four 70? That constitutes a rate of extinction far 71 what ecologists might expect from such a 72 loss of habitat. Critics have used the 73 low number to challenge conservationists' 74 that widespread deforestation in some parts of the world will 75 lead to a severe loss in biodiversity.

In an article being 76 today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Stuart L. Pimm and Dr. Robert A. Askins examine the history of 77 in the East and subsequent extinctions of bird species. Dr. Pimm, an ecologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, argues that 78 endemic species -- those which live in the Eastern United States forests and 79 else -- are counted, the calculations of expected species loss hold 80.

One reason, he says, is that the Eastern forest was never cut all at once; 81 the woodlands of Ohio were being felled by farmers moving 82, for example, those cut earlier in New England were regenerating. 83, there were always enough refuges for most forest birds.

But other biologists say that even with the revised counting method, forecasting extinction rates is an 84 art.

The theory used to estimate species loss predicts that as an area of habitat is 85, species will disappear at a predictable rate. If a habitat 86 by half, for example, the theory predicts a 15 percent loss of species; a reduction of 90 percent of a given habitat would eventually cause half the species to disappear.

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Part Ⅵ Translation (5 minutes)
Directions: Complete the sentences by translating into English the Chinese given in brackets. Please

write your translation on Answer Sheet 2.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答，只需写出译文部分。

88. Everybody seemed to have known about his scandal, and only ______________________ (他妻子蒙在鼓里).

89. The patients’ heath failed to _______________________ (严重恶化需要精心护理).

90. Most broadcasters maintain that TV has been unfairly criticized and argue that _________________________ (这一媒体的影响力被夸大了).

91. _________________________ (如果这种动物的数量少了)，our future generation won’t even have a chance to see it.