(B)

The young boy saw me, or, he saw the car and quickly ran up to me, eager to sell his bunches of bananas and bags of peanuts. Though he appeared to be about twelve, he seemed to have already known the bitterness of life. “Banana 300 naira. Peanuts 200 naira.”

He said in a low voice. I bargained him down to 200 total for the fruit and nuts. When he agreed, I handed him a 500 naira bill. He didn’t have change, so I told him not to worry.

He said thanks and smiled a row of perfect teeth.

When, two weeks later, I saw the boy again. I was more aware of my position in a society where it’s not that uncommon to see a little boy who should be in school standing on the corner selling fruit in the burning sun. My parents had raised me to be aware of the advantage we had been afforded and the responsibility it brought to us.

I pulled over and rolled down my window. He had a bunch of bananas and a bag of peanuts ready. I waved them away. “What’s up?” I asked him. “I…I don’t have money to buy books for school.” I reached into my pocket and handed him two fresh 500 naira bills.

“Will this help?” I asked. He looked around nervously before taking the money. One thousand naira was a lot of money to someone whose family probably made about 5,000 naira or less each year. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “Thank you very much.”

When driving home, I wondered if my little friend actually used the money for school-books. What if he’s a cheat? And then I wondered why I did it. Did I do it to make myself feel better? Was I using him? Later, I realized that I didn’t know his name or the least bit about him, nor did I think to ask.

Over the next six months, I was busy working in a news agency in Northern Nigeria. Sometime after I returned, I went out for a drive. When I was about to pull over, the boy suddenly appeared by my window with a big smile ready on his face.

“Oh, gosh! Long time.”

“Are you in school now?” I asked.

He nodded.

“That’s good.” I said. A silence fell as we looked at each other, and then I realized what he wanted. “Here,” I held out a 500 naira bill. “Take this.” He shook his head and stepped back as if hurt. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s a gift.”

He shook his head again and brought his hand from behind his back. His face shone with sweat. He dropped a bunch of bananas and a bag of peanuts in the front seat before he said, “I’ve been waiting to give these to you.”

73. What was the author’s first impression of the boy?

A. He seemed to be poor and greedy.

B. He seemed to have suffered a lot.

C. He seemed younger than his age.

D. He seemed good at bargaining.

74. The third time the author met him, the boy ______.

A. told him his purpose of selling fruit and nuts

B. wanted to express his thanks

C. asked him for money for his schoolbooks

D. tried to take advantage of him

75. Why did the author give his money to the boy?

A. Because he had enough money to do that.

B. Because he had learnt to help others since childhood.

C. Because he held a higher position in the society.

D. Because he had been asked by the news agency to do so.

76. Which of the following best describes the boy?

A. Brave and polite.      B. Kind and smart.

C. Honest and thankful.     D. Shy and nervous.

(C)

A Big First for Women

Hollywood history has been made now that Kathryn Bigelow has become the first female to win a Best Director Oscar.

“There’s no other way to describe it, it’s the moment of a lifetime,” said 58-year-old Bigelow excitedly, at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Bigelow’s film, The Hurt Locker (《拆弹部队》), swept the awards with six trophies, including Best Director and Best Picture.

The movie about a bomb disposal (拆除) unit in the Iraq War beat Avatar, the highest grossing(票房收入) film of all time, to the major awards. This was sweetened by the fact that Avatar’s director, James Cameron, is her ex-husband.

Bigelow played down her success, telling CBS, “There’s really no difference between what I do and what a male filmmaker might do. I mean we all try to make our days, we all try to give the best performances we can, we try to make our budget, we try to make the best movie we possibly can. So in that sense it’s very similar.”

However, Bigelow’s cinematic journey could not have strayed (偏离) farther from the path of female directors before her. Her movies are low on female characters and high on guns and steel. They focus on men: their fears, bonds (关系) and rites of passage (成长历程).

Point Break was her breakout film in 1991. The action film tells the story of an FBI agent who goes undercover (卧底) to investigate a gang of bank robbers. It was popular because of its strong but flawed (有缺点的) male characters.

The Hurt Locker is in the same style. The war film is about an anti-hero, William James, leading a crew of competing men in removing roadside bombs around Iraq. James is addicted to risk taking and enjoys putting his fellow soldiers in constant danger. Many scenes are full of clashing (冲突的) male personalities.

Focusing on these male relationships, critics praised The Hurt Lockers for avoiding obvious political statements (something Avatar was heavily criticized for), and instead painting a truthful picture of modern war.

And is there an entertaining end to the story of Bigelow’s victory? She won on International Women’s Day.

It is, after all, Hollywood.

77. Which of the following statements is FALSE according to the article?

A. Avatar is the most profitable film in history.

B. Bigelow is the first female director to win the Best Director Oscar.

C. Bigelow and James Cameron were once married.

D. The film The Hurt Locker tries to make strong political statements about the Iraq war.

78. What does the first sentence in Paragraph 6 mean?

A. Bigelow has a similar style to other female directors.

B. Bigelow usually wants to work with other females.

C. Unlike other female directors, Bigelow focuses on male topics.

D. Unlike other female directors, Bigelow has made other mistakes.

79. The text tells us that ______.

A. The Hurt Locker aims to show how men love danger and war.

B. The Hurt Locker presents the clashes between male characters well.

C. Bigelow was given the award because it was Women’s Day.

D. Bigelow was proud of defeating a male director.

80. The article is about ______.

A. The unique style of the first woman to win the Oscar for best direction.

B. What makes Bigelow different from other female directors

C. The award-winning film Bigelow made

D. The Hurt Locker beating Avatar at the Oscars

(D)

“My child seems sad; is he suffering from depression?”

Not necessarily: Normal sadness or grieving is not depression. Don’t worry if your child occasionally feels blue or down in the dumps. Life has its ups and downs, and it’s normal for children to grieve over a loss or feel sad for a few hours or days at a time. But if his melancholy (忧郁症) lasts for more than a couple of weeks or seems to interfere with his regular activities and relationships, he may be clinically depressed. Depression is far more than a temporary change in mood; it’s marked by a sense of hopelessness and a lack of energy and enthusiasm that can last for weeks, months, or (in rare cases) even years at a time. The good news about depression is that it’s almost always treatable. The key is identifying the problem and getting help.

What are the symptoms?

It might seem logical that the most obvious symptom of depression would be sadness, but many depressed children say they don’t feel sad or gloomy. Interestingly, one of the key signs of depression in children is irritability (易怒). Children may be depressed if they have trouble getting along with other kids and family members or have dramatic swings in mood. Other signs of depression include lack of energy, inability to concentrate, poor performance in school, a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, and frequent complaints about physical ailments like headaches or stomachaches.

Depression often goes hand in hand with other mental health problems. A youngster who has an eating disorder or a substance abuse problem, as well as kids who are constantly defiant (挑衅), disagreeable, and getting into trouble with authorities, may also suffer from depression.

“How do I know if my child is depressed?”

If your child exhibits any symptoms of depression, ask yourself three questions: Is this behavior new? Is it long-lasting (going on for several weeks or more)? Are the symptoms interfering with his ability to function at home, in school, or with his friends? If you answer yes to any of those questions, you should probably have your child evaluated by a child or adolescent (青少年) psychologist, psychiatrist, or other licensed mental health professional trained to work with children and adolescents.

81. Which one of the following children is more likely to be suffering from depression?

A. Jane felt sad when she got a “C” for yesterday’s homework.

B. Tom doesn’t have a friend and always gets angry.

C. John complained about his headache this morning.

D. Linda is too lazy to help her parents to do housework.

82. What does the underlined phrase “have dramatic swings in mood” probably mean?

A. Be moody.       B. Be upset all the time.

C. Have ups and downs in expression.  D. Show anger and sadness.

83. We can conclude from the passage that _________.

A. adults are more likely to suffer from depression

B. depression is temporary and always treatable.

C. children who suffer from depression all seem sad

D. depression is a mental health problem

84. Which of the following statements best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A. Children who perform poorly in school are probably suffering from depression.

B. Children may also suffer from depression, which has some special symptoms.

C. Children should get medical help when they seem sad and angry.

D. Parents should not overreact to their children’s bad mood.

Section C

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

(E)

A. Brasilia, a beautiful city, but not yet a community

B. Large cities built without plans

C. What is required to turn a city into a community

D. How to create a beautiful new city

E. Modern cities built with good plans

AB. A comparison between two cities

85. _______________

Most of the large cities in the world have grown without plans and blueprints. London is such a city. Its streets zigzag, snake, and circle. There is no reason or order to its street-numbering system. Indeed, no one but a veteran taxi driver knows the whole of London. And before he gets his cabbie’s license he must first tour the city for months, street by street, then take a comprehensive examination to prove that he can find his way about. New York and Chicago grew in much the same way. They just spread out, pushed by the demands for residential, business, or industrial space. Like spilled water, they expanded in all directions. Today in New York, even a native-born Manhattanite despairs of finding his way around Brooklyn.

86. ________________

There are a few modern cities, however, that were created out of nothing. They were built strictly by the book according to detailed plans that will also control future growth. Two such American cities are Columbia, Maryland, and Reston, Virginia. But the prime example of a city planned and built from scratch in the twentieth century is Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil.

87. _________________

Ready for business in 1960, Brasilia was an architect’s delight and a planner’s dream. Its public buildings, monuments, and high-rise apartment complexes were magnificently modern. Access roads fed into the streets with no traffic lights. Every feature seemed logical, reasonable, and right. But for more than a decade, Brasilia seemed all wrong to the people brought there to live and to work in government officers. While it was undeniably a beautiful city, it was not yet a community.

88. _________________

For it is people and their history of habitation that turn a city from a collection of streets and buildings into a community. It is people who give a city life and character and personality – and a brand-new tailor-made Brasilia didn’t have those qualities for a long time. But now, happily, its residents no longer feel they need to rush back to Rio or Sao Paulo at every opportunity. Indeed, they visit, picnic, and enjoy one another’s company. Brasilia is beginning to feel like home to them.

89. _________________

Other planned cities have faced the same problem of creating a community spirit and identity. Some observers of life in Columbia, Maryland, another planned city, have been concerned with lack of spirit there and have made an interesting comparison between Columbia and Hoboken, New Jersey. Hoboken, an old waterfront town just across the Hudson River from New York City, is an urban planner’s nightmare. It has row upon row of old dingy brick buildings, and grass and trees are few and far between. Columbia, on the other hand, is an urban planner’s dream. It has charming colonial and modern houses on winding streets. There are lovely lawns and beautiful trees. And there are bicycle paths and hundreds of acres of woods, meadows and lakes.

第II卷　(共21分)

IV.  Complete the following sentences with the proper forms of the verbs in the brackets. (0.5%*10 = 5%)

1. Mark often attempts to escape ______ (fine) whenever he breaks traffic regulations.

2. Don’t take the medicine. It can’t help ______ (get) rid of you cold.

3. The pencil of that kind ______ (write) more smoothly than this one.

4. Jean together with some former classmates ______ (be) going to see the retired teacher.

5. Five people were said ______(kill) in the air crash.

6. ________ (he, come) late to school made the teacher angry.

7. He was fast asleep, with his head ______ (bury) in his arms.

8. What worried her most was ______ (she, not allow) to go abroad alone.

9. The boss insisted that all the work ______ (do) before the end of this month.

10. We went to the house agency to look at the flats ______ (let).

V. Translation (16%)

Directions:  Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in the brackets.

1. 如果你愿意与我合住一间卧室，我将不胜感激。  (appreciate)   3%

2. 我们应该利用有限的时间来为世博会打好坚实的基础。  (advantage)  3%

3. 重要的是你能否在别人都反对的情况下，坚持做自己认为对的事。  (object)  3%

4.  正如我在电子邮件中所提到的，如果在交流上遇到任何困难，可以立刻和我取得联系。 (contact) 3%

5. 对语言学习来说，怎么强调 “输入”的重要性都不过分，因此阅读报纸和听广播是应该培养的好习惯。 (can’t …too…)  4%