In ancient times the most important examinations were spoken, not written. In the schools of ancient Greece and Rome, testing usually was made up of saying poetry aloud and giving speeches.

In the European universities of the Middle Ages, students who were working for advanced degrees had to discuss ques??tions in their field of study with people who had made a spe??cial study of the subject. This custom exists today as part of the process of testing candidates (应试者) for the doctor’s de??gree.

Generally, however, modem examinations are written. The written examination, where all students are tested on the same questions, was probably not known until the nineteenth century. Perhaps it came into existence with the great increase in population and the development of modem industry. A room full of candidates for a state examination timed exactly by electric clocks and carefully watched over by managers, looks like a group of workers at an automobile factory. Certainly, during examinations teachers and students are expected to act like machines.

One type of test is sometimes called an “objective” test. It is intended to deal with facts, not personal opinions. To make up an objective test, the teacher writes a series (一系列)of ques??tions, each of which has only one correct answer. Along with each question the teacher writes the correct answer and also three statements that look like answers to students who have not learned the material properly.

The main idea of Paragraph Three is that ________.

A. workers now take examinations             B. the population has grown

C. there are only written exams today     D. examinations are now written and timed

The kind of exams where students must select answers are

A. objective                                          B. personal  

C. spoken                                             D. written

Modem industry must have developed ________.

A. around the 19th century                B. before the Middle Ages

C. in Greece or Rome                   D. machines to take tests

It may be concluded that testing ________.

A. should test only opinions                B. should always be written

C. is given only in factories          D. has changed since the Middle Ages

In every country there are times to celebrate, weddings, birthdays, religious festivals. Although the U.S.A is a multi-cultural society, where different groups celebrate their own traditional   21   , Christmas is the most popular holiday in the U.S.A. Some of the   22    of Christmas time are old and others are newer.

Already in the late 18^th and the 19^th centuries, people felt sentimental (眷恋的) about Christmases of the past. The American   23   , Washington Irving, wrote in 1819 about the old-fashioned Christmas he experienced in England. He was taken in a stagecoach (驿站马车) full of happy people, food and presents, to an old house in the   24   . There, he found a crowd of happy farmers, lots of food and drinks, snow, games and ghosts.

The first Christmas card, which was printed in England, showed people eating and drinking   25   . It was sent in 1846, but Christmas cards did not become really   26    until the 1860s, when color printing became possible.

By this time, stagecoaches had   27    running, replaced by the railroad. More and more families   28    the country and were living in towns and cities, but the dream of the   29    Christmas remained. The loaded stagecoach driving along the country road through the snow still   30    on many Christmas cards today.

 

1.A. festivals             B. weddings              C. parties                            D. birthdays

2.A. foods                  B. traditions              C. cards                      D. decorations

3.A. writer                 B. singer                     C. designer                D. farmer

4.A. city                      B. country                  C. town                       D. hill

5.A. dangerously      B. happily                   C. equally                   D. generously

6.A. usual                   B. famous                  C. popular                  D. regular

7.A. started               B. kept                        C. stopped                 D. continued

8.A. left                      B. preferred              C. admired                 D. reached

9.A. amazing             B. new                        C. merry                     D. old-fashioned

10.A. turns                          B. appears                 C. puts                        D. gets

 

London--A morning train rides away, across the channel. English kids discuss the Liverpool's football team in a Paris pub.

Some Parisians have started to travel to work in London.

In the 19th century, Charles Dickens compared the two cities, London and Paris, in A Tale of Two Cities. These days, it might be A tale of One City.

As there are few jobs at home over recent years, perhaps 250,000 Frenchmen moved across the channel. With an undersea tunnel, they could travel between cities in three hours. The European Union freed them from immigration and customs.

Paris, rich in beauty, is more stylish. But London feels more full of life, and more fun until the pubs shut down.

“For me, the difference is that London is real, alive,” said Trevor Wheeler, a financial expert.

Chantal Jaouen, a professional designer, agrees. “I am French, but I’ll stay in London,” she said.

There is, of course, the other view. Julie Lenoux is a student who moved to London two years ago. “I think people laugh more in Paris,” she said.

“Both cities have changed beyond recognition,” said Larry Collins, an author and sometimes a Londoner. Like most people who know both cities well, he finds the two now fit together comfortably. “I first fell in love with Paris in the 1950s. Things are so much more ordered, and life is better.”

But certainly not cheaper. In some parts of London, rents can be twice those on Avenue Foch in Paris.

Deciding between London and Paris requires a lifestyle choice. Like Daphne Benoit, a French journalism student with perfect English, many young people are happy to be close enough so they don’t have to choose. “I love Paris, my little neighborhood, the way I can walk around a centre, but life is too organized,” she said. “In London, you can be whoever you want. No one cares.”

It can be inferred that ___________.

A．Paris and London are the two biggest cities in the world

B．In the 19th century, Dickens told his stories in the two cities

C．London and Paris used to be separated

D．Liverpool is a big city in France

According to this passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A．People feel it difficult to find a job in Paris.

B．People can't travel to London without a passport.

C．Living in France is more expensive than in London.

D．People can find any job in London.

The underlined phrase in Para 9 most probably means “_____________”

A. beyond one’s imagination

B. so much that people don’t know them well again

C. so little that people still know them well

D. to people’s satisfaction

What’s the meaning of the last two sentences?

A．People can do everything in London.

B．People will feel lonely in London.

C．People in London enjoy living in different ways.

D．People in London enjoy a lawless life.

Throughout the history of the arts,the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists.No matter what objects they select,artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.

Landscape(风景) is another unchanging element of art.It can be found from ancient times through the 17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impressionists.In the 1970s Alfred Leslie,one of the new American realists,continued this practice.Leslie sought out the same place where Toomas Cole,a romanticist,had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before.Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature,Lealie paints what he actually sees.In his paintings,there is no particular change in emotion,and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background.He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography(摄影术) to help both the eye and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.

Besides,all art begs the age-old question:What is real?Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another.The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects,the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes,and the Cro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient Forests.To sum up,understanding reality is a necessary struggle for artists of all periods.

Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant.Past or present,Eastern or Western,the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience.Many and different are the faces of art,and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.

The underlined word “poetry” most probably means ______.

A.an object for artistic creation

B.a collection of poems

C.an unusual quality

D.a natural scene

Leslie’s paintings are extraordinary because ______.

A.they are close in style to works in ancient times

B.they look like works by 19th-century painters

C.they draw attention to common things in life

D.they depend heavily on color photography

What is the author’s opinion of artistic reality?

A.It will not be found in future works of art.

B.It does not have a long-lasting standard.

C.It is expressed in a fixed artistic form.

D.It is lacking in modern words of art.

What does the author suggest about the arts in the last paragraph?

A.They express people’s curiosity about the past.

B.They make people interested in everyday experience.

C.They are considered important for variety in form.

D.They are regarded as a mirror of the human situation.

Which of the following is the main topic of the passage?

A.History of the arts.

B.Basic questions of the arts.

C.New developments in the arts.

D.Use of modern technology in the arts.四、写作(共两节，满分35分)

 Autumn means different things to different people. It all depends on your personality, said British naturalist Richard Mabey. "Personality shapes your view of the season," he said. "You may see it as a fading away, a packing up（结束）, or as a time of packing in another sense – the excited gathering of resources before a long journey."

If this is true, perhaps it tells us a little about, for instance, Thomas Hood, the 19th Century English poet. About November, he wrote:

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees

November!

On the other hand, another English poet John Keats, already sensing he was seriously ill, was inspired by a late September day to pen one of the most famous poems in the English language, To Autumn. He wrote to a friend afterwards that there was something comforting and healing about it.

According to Richard Mabey, Keats has the biological evidence on his side. Autumn is not a time of slowing down, but a time of new beginnings and great movements of creatures. For example, just at the moment that Keats's "gathering swallows" （in To Autumn） are departing for Africa, millions of creatures are fleeing from the frozen north like Iceland, Greenland and Russia to winter along the east and south coasts of Britain. According to scientists, before falling, the leaves transfer their chlorophyll（叶绿素） and carbohydrates into the woody parts of the tree for safe-keeping over winter. What remains are the natural antioxidants（防老剂） in the leaves: the yellow and orange carotenoids（类胡萝卜素）, and another protective chemical specially produced for autumn, the bright-red anthocyanin（花青素）. High color is not a signal of deterioration（退化） and decline, but of detox（排毒的） ability and good health.

A century after Keats, the American poet Loren Eiseley wrote in his journal: "Suppose we saw ourselves burning like maples in a golden autumn. [And that we could] disintegrate（瓦解） like autumn leaves…dropping their substance like chlorophyll. Would not our attitude towards death be different?"

1.From Thomas Hood’s poem, we may infer that _______.

         A．he suffered a lot from cold November

         B．he missed the shining summer days very much

         C．he had a negative attitude towards autumn

         D．he enjoyed butterflies and bees very much

2.Which word can best describe Loren Eiseley’s attitude towards autumn?

         A．Optimistic.             B．Fearful.                   C．Doubtful.                 D．Realistic.

3.In autumn, leaves turn yellow before falling because ______.

         A．they can’t bear the freezing

         B．they can’t get enough water from the wood part

         C．chlorophyll and carbohydrates have been lost through leaves

         D．chlorophyll and carbohydrates have come back to the wood part

4.What does the underlined sentence mean?

         A．Man can never live long, just as leaves must leave the tree annually.

         B．Man is different from autumn leaves, which will come again the next spring.

         C．Man should treat death calmly, just like autumn leaves fall to the ground.

         D．Man should have a positive attitude towards death, quite different from autumn leaves.