Ⅰ. Listening Comprehension

II. Grammar and vocabulary  

Section A

Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

   On its 55th test flight, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suffered "an anomaly(异常现象)" just two minutes after it separated from its mother ship. One pilot was able to parachute out and is being treated for serious injuries, but tragically, the other died.

   A new private space race _____21_____(emerge) in recent years, with private companies like Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace____22_____(compete) to become the world's first commercial space line. Virgin has partnered with NASA to run research missions in zero-gravity, but beyond that, Virgin Galactic relies on selling tickets to space enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies for the bulk of its development cost. And they aren't cheap. It costs $250,000 a seat. _____23____the service provided by the space tourism industry must be a “luxury experience ”, Passengers want to know they ____24_____ be safe. The recent accident will surely instil fear in the more than 700 people who have signed up to make the journey.

   So what is the value of space tourism? And why risk human lives to make_____25____ a reality? George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin, Galacitc, said: "At heart, what inspires me the most is the idea ____26_____ space changes you, that space has this profound impact on the people that can experience it."

   What Whitesides is referring___27______ is the overview effect, a phenomenon that space travelers are said to experience when they see the curvature of the Earth -- changing the way people see the world, thereby influencing the way ____28_____ they live. that suborbital flights are not the ultimate end goal for Virgin Galactic. To develop ___29______ (far) , the company chose point-to-point intercontinental travel as the next application of this technology, meaning that one day passengers could travel around the world in about two hours.

   While such plans have been put on hold since the accident, Virgin Galactic is intent on taking off. In his blog post following the crash, Branson said: "Space is hard,  __30_______ it is worth it. We will persevere and move forward together."The question is, will people still be willing to pay $250,000 to go to space?

Section B

Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

Botany, the study of plants, occupies a_____31_____ position in the history of human knowledge. We don’t know what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is ___32______. Plants are the basis of the food ___33______ for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of peoples, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many ______34___ of each. To them botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all.

Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become, the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less _____35____ our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes _____36____ on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years age, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer _____37____ the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them _____38____ the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the ______39___ production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the ____40_____ knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.

III. Reading Comprehension

Section A

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

  

Death comes quickly in the mountains. Each winter holidaymakers are caught ____41_____ as they happily ski away from the fixed runs, little realizing that a small avalanche can send them crashing in a bone-breaking fall down the slope and leave them buried under tons of crisp white snow. There are lots of theories about how to avoid ___42_____ when hit by an avalanche. Practice is normally less cheerful.

The snow in the Salzburg of Austria where a recent disaster took place was typical ____43_____ material. For several days before the incident I had skied locally. Early winter snow was wearing thin and covered with ice. On top of that new, warmer flakes were gently falling to produce a _____44____ carpet. To the skier who enjoys unmarked slopes it is tempting stuff, deep new power snow on a ____45_____ base---the skiing that _____46____ are made of. And sometimes nightmares.

Snow falls in sections like a cake. Different sections have different densities(浓度) because of the temperatures at the time of the fall and in the weeks afterwards. _____47____ come when any particular section is too thick and not sticking to the section beneath. The snow of the past few weeks had been falling in rather higher temperatures than those of December and early January. The ____48_____ of these conditions is that even a _____49____ increase in the temperatures sends a thin stream of water between the new snow and the old. Then the new snow simply slides off the mountain.

Such _____50____ are not unexpected. Local citizens know the slopes which tend to avalanche and the weather in which such slides are likely. Traps are set to ____51_____ the snow or prevent it slipping; bombs are placed and exploded from time to time to set off small avalanches _____52____ a big one has time to build up; and above all, skiers are warned not to ski in danger areas.

_____53____ this, avalanches happen in unexpected areas and, of course, skier ignore the warnings. The one ____54_____ to recreational skiers, however, is that avalanche incidents on the marked ski slopes are quite rare. No ski resort wants the image of being a _____55____.

41. A. unexpectedly B. frequently C. consciously D. visibly

42. A. skiing B. fall C. injury D. disaster

43. A. snow B. avalanche C. practice D. death

44. A. dangerous B. comfortable C. safe D. shallow

45. A. soft B.  loose C. hard D. muddy

46. A. events B. dreams C. holidays D. slopes

47. A.  Problems B. Skiers C. Holidaymakers D. Days

48. A. cause B. inference C.  result D. fact

49. A. light B. slight C. great D. extreme

50. A. slides B. reverses C. skis D. leaps

51. A. clear B. melt C. catch D. make

52. A. before B. until C. after D. while

53. A. In addition to B. In spite of

C. But for D. In contrast with

54. A. concern B. dream C. comfort D. danger

55. A. scenic spot B. snow fall C. avalanche warning D. death trip 

Section B

Directions: Read the following three 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

 My grandmother died when my mother was 11 years old, and so my mother never learned how to cook particularly well. Water, she could boil. Recipes, she could follow. But with a single father, my mother lost some skills along the way.

I did not learn to cook either. Instead, I have become a superior dinner guest. I am wonderful to have at your side while you cook, particularly if you give me a glass of wine at your table. I will appreciate your food in a deep, emotional and highly verbal way, perhaps because I did not get to experience that kind of cooking growing up.

Cooking skills aside, my mother is an exceptional nurturer. Two years ago, she flew to New York to care for me while I recovered from a minor operation. The surgery went smoothly, and the painkillers were a delight. At my apartment, I handed her a grocery list of comfort foods, which included Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup.

 “I should make you some chicken noodle soup instead.” she said.

 “ Mom, you have never made chicken noodle soup in your life----except form a can,” I said. “ That’s not true.” she said.

“ It is absolutely true.” I said.

 We discussed this a moment longer. Sooner , a cell phone surfaced from a purse, and my father’s voice came through on the end of the line. “ Your mother did many wonderful things for you,” my father said. “ She encouraged your love of books; she taught you to believe you could be anything you wanted in life.”

 “ I know she did!” I said. “ But there was no chicken noodle soup, right?”

 “ I do not recall any chicken noodle soup,” my father said.

 “ Well, now I’m definitely going to make you some soup,” said my mother, who loves a well-thrown gauntlet.

 I emailed my friend Kate, an amazing chef. I wrote that my mom was going to make some chicken noodle soup and that perhaps this was dangerous terrain. “ Send us a recipe,” I said. “ But make it airtight.”

Kate sent a recipe, and off my mother went to the grocery store. Meanwhile, the painkiller were wearing off. That coup better be good, I thought.

Three hours and dozen e-mails with Kate later, my mother had successfully made the chicken broth.

There were some arguments along the way. She bought low-sodium(低钠的)stock, for example, and I forced her to salt it. “ I’m recovering from surgery,” I said, “ let me have my salt!” But it looked good, and it smelled good. It was definitely chicken soup, and it was made with love.

All we needed was noodles.

I watched as my mother emptied an entire one-pound bag of noodles into the soup. At that exact moment, Kate sent me an e-mail. Subject line: Noodles. “ I forgot to say sorry how many,” she wrote, “ Did she put in the whole package? Really , it should be like …….a cup.”

We watched in horror as the noodles sucked up all the soup. We tried to add more water, but it was too late. My mother and I stood in the kitchen, frantically spooning the remaining broth into our bowls.

“ It’s my fault!” wrote Kate.

“ It’s my fault!” said my mother.

Aha, the final ingredient : guilt.

But let me tell, that one bowl of chicken noodle soup was delicious. We did not think about the pot of soup-soaked noodles sitting in the kitchen while we ate, nor did we think about the imperfections of life. I was my mother’s best dinner guest, and she was my favorite chef.

56. Why couldn’t the author’s mother cook well?

A. Her mother died early and her father married again.

B. No one taught her how to cook well as her mother died earlier.

C. She didn’t have to cook because her father could do that for her.

D. It was enough for her to know how to boil water and follow recipes

57. Which of the following is most probably TRUE according to the story?

A. The author was staying with her father and mother when it all happened.

B. The author never argued with her mother.

C. The mother cooked a chicken noodle soup for his father once.

D. The mother bought all the ingredients all by herself at the grocery store.

58. Which of the following can be the title of the story?

A. The right attitude to cook a chicken noodle soup.

B. A perfect chicken noodle soup ever

C. Two cooks spoiled the broth.

D. The most important ingredient ---a mother’s love    

(  B  )

How to have a G