At 2.20 a.m., the Titanic sank into the sea. It had hit an iceberg just over two hours before. Of the 2200 people on the ship, only 705 survived.

 Explorer Robert Ballard searched for the Titanic for more than 20 years before he found it. ‘When new technology was developed, we used it to send cameras down into the sea. Finally, we found the ship.” With his cameras, he was able to find the hole along the side of the ship which had caused it to fill with water and sink.

 The Titanic was built in Ireland in 1912.Its makers spent a great deal of money building the ship.

 The Titanic set sail on the 10^th of April. On the 13^th, it was sailing at full speed towards New York. The captain received warnings about icebergs all day, but he paid little attention to them.

24. 文学与艺术(Literature and art)

(1) Forms of literature and art (drama, novel, essay, poetry, short story, painting, etc.)

(2) Famous literary people and artists

附录二

高中学生英语口语等级测试训练材料

第一部分 朗读短文并回答问题

用正确的语音语调朗读下面的短文并回答问题

1

Dear Mr Zhu

I am writing to your magazine’s ‘Teenagers Now” column to ask for some help with my 16-year-old son. At the moment, he refuses to do almost everything his mother and I ask him to do. He is our only child. His mum and I treat him very well, and his grandparents buy him many things. Yet he is still rude to us. He refuses to spend time with us or do as we tell him. Sometimes he acts as though he doesn’t even love us at all.

Now he refuses to do his homework, and instead insist on wasting his time watching DVDs and listening to foreign music. I cannot understand this music, but I don’t like it. He also spends too much time in Internet cafes, where he either plays games or chats online. He is wasting valuable time during this important period in his life! 

What am I to do? At present, to prevent upsetting his mother with an argument, I am allowing him his freedom. However, I am worried that if I keep allowing him to do what he wants, he may fail at school, or worse.

 How can I help my son without harming our relationship?

Yours sincerely

Liu Zhen hua

Questions:

[1] Who do you think Mr Zhu is?

[2] Why does Liu Zhen hua write to Mr Zhu?

[3] What is his son’s problem?

[4] How does he behave now?

[5] What is Liu Zhen hua worried about?

2

Dear Zhou Ling

Things change so quickly! I’m now in hospital recovering from liver failure. I regret taking those weight-loss pills. They contain a harmful chemical that cause my liver to fail. The doctor told me that I would die if I couldn’t get a new liver. My mother is a match, but she is too old for such a long operation. I thought I was going to die.

Then the doctor found that someone in your country, whose name is Li Dong, was an exact match for me.. He donated more than half of his liver to save my life. I was very lucky, wasn’t I?

I’m feeling better now. I follow my doctor’s advice and exercise for at least half an hour every day, and eat lots of fruit and vegetables. People should look after their bodies. My mother is right: don’t damage your health for a slim and attractive figure. It isn’t worth it. We shouldn’t be ashamed of the way we look, should we?

I hope to hear from you soon.

Love

Amy

生词：liver 肝

Questions:

[1] What's wrong with Amy?

[2] What caused her liver to fail?

[3] Why did she think she was going to die?

[4] How was she saved?

[5] What does she say about health?

3

 I had many teachers in the past year and they each taught only one subject. Mr Heywood was my class teacher. My favourite teacher was Miss Burke. She was the teacher who taught us English Literature. In our class there were 29 students. This is about the average size for British schools. We had to move to different classrooms for different classes. We also had different students in some classes, so it was difficult to remember all the faces and names. 

 I found the homework was not as heavy as what I used to get in my old school, but it was a bit challenging for me at first because all the homework was in English. I felt lucky as all my teachers were very helpful and I enjoyed all my subjects: English, History, English Literature, Computer Science, Maths, Science, PE, Art, Cooking and French.

Questions:

[1] Who was the speaker’s favourite teacher?

[2] Why was it difficult to remember all the faces and names?

[3] Why did the speaker feel lucky?

[4] How many students were there in the speaker’s class?

[5] What were the subjects the speaker had at school?

4

Early in the 18^th century, Captain Cook, a famous explorer of Australia, unexpectedly caught sight of an unusual animal during his first visit to Australia. The animal had a large mouse-like head and jumped along on its large legs. To his great surprise, the unusual animal carried its young in a special pocket of flesh. Captain Cook pointed to the animal which was eating grass in the distance and asked his native guide what the animal was. The guide seemed not to know what he was pointing at and finally said “kangaroo”, which Cook carefully wrote down as the animals name in his word book. The Europeans who later got to Australia were anxious to see the unusual animal “kangaroo”, but their requests were met with puzzled looks from the native people. Before long they discovered that the native guide who had answered Cook’s question really meant, ‘I don’t know what you are pointing at.” Funnily enough, the name “kangaroo” stuck and it is still in use today.

生词：kangaroo 袋鼠

Questions:

[1] Who was Captain Cook?

[2] When did Captain Cook reach Australia?

[3] What did he unexpectedly see during his first visit to Australia?

[4] What was the animal like?

[5] How did the kangaroo get its name?

5

 When it was finished, it was the largest and most comfortable ship ever built. People thought it would never sink. However, this passenger ship surprised everyone when it sank on its first journey.

23. 社会(Society)

 (1) Nationality and people                  (2) Famous people (contemporary)

(3) Law ( rules and regulations, traffic codes, etc.)

(4) Ways of dressing (types of clothes, daily clothes or dress, situation and dressing, etc.)

(5) Names of religions                          (6) Religions and culture

(7) Customs and culture

21. 热点话题(Topical issues)

(1) Population (2) Environmental conservation (3) Crime and punishment

(4) Social differences (5) Pollution

22 历史与地理(History and geography)

(1) General knowledge of history and geography about China

(2) General knowledge of history and geography about the world

(3) Historic events    (4) Historical persons

20. 科普知识与现代技术(Popular science and modern technology)

(1) Recent inventions, medical advances, technological advances, etc)

(2) Computer science,

19. 世界与环境(The world and the environment)

(1) Countries and maps (China, Great Britain, United States, Australia, Canada,

 New Zealand, Japan, Russia, India, Egypt, Cuba, ETC.)

(2) Issues (pollution, land use and quality, housing, population growth, etc.)

18. 自然（Nature）

(1) Plants (green plants, trees, bushes, grass, crops, vegetables, flowers, etc.)

(2) Animals (farm animals, wild animals, pets, endangered animals, etc.)

(3) Heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon and stars, etc.)

(4) Describing land (cities, farms, hills, mountains, lakes, rivers, etc.)

(5) Natural disasters (volcano, earthquake, etc.)

17、语言学习（Language learning）

（1）Differences between American English and British English

（2）Language and culture

(3) Language learning difficulties

(4) Attitudes to language and communication

(5) Language learning strategies

(6) Communications repair

16、旅游与交通（Travel and transport）

（1）Methods of transportation (walking, cycling, horse riding, taking buses/trains/boats/planes, etc.)

（2）Travel (schedule, maps, tickets, fares, etc.)

(3) Getting and asking directions (left, right, straight ahead, north, south, east, west, etc.)

（4）Safety rules and warning (traffic lights, caution, walk, stop, etc.)

（5）Inquiring and making reservations (hotels, tourist spots, etc.)

（6）International travel (passport, visas, expenses, currency, etc.)

（7）Describing a journey