If you walk slowly through downtown Helsinki during the day, taking in the splendid 19 th century buildings, white boats and noise of passing trams (有轨电车), you will start to understand why it is called a city of two colors: white and blue.

The sea is always present in Helsinki. When you take a walk over the great open space of the central square, you will hear seabirds screaming. When you take the tram, suddenly and unexpectedly, you are faced with a calm, shining blue sea. You may notice that people in Helsinki do not rush about as in other cities. Instead, they walk along the roads, politely letting other people by.

A usual way to see Helsinki for the first time is to start out by the boats. You will walk by the elderly women selling fish and vegetables in the market square and find yourself in front of a beautiful park. You may enjoy a pleasant walk in the park for a few hours and then take the tram. Trams are the perfect way to get around in Helsinki. Watching the old houses, parks, theatres, churches, shops, restaurants and people in the streets, you may have a slightly sad film feeling to it.

The pale summer nights are another wonder in the city. Following the waterfront（滨水区）of the city after sunset, you couldn’t help stopping and listening to the sweet silence, interrupted only by the screaming seabirds and leaving fishing boats.

However, in some way. Helsinki is also the most modern city in northern Europe. You will surely want to visit the white Glass Palace, the modern art museum, and all those extremely popular cafes and design stores.

Helsinki is called a city of two colors mainly because of the colors of its ________.

      A．19th century white buildings and boats

       B．19th century buildings and passing trams

      C．white roads and blue trams

      D．old buildings, boats and the sea

The best way to see most of Helsinki is to go ________.

      A．by boat    B．by bus     C．by tram    D．on foot

The 19th century buildings, the white Glass Palace and all those popular cafes and design shops show that Helsinki is _________.

      A．both western and eastern        B．both quiet and noisy

      C．both historical and modern     D．both old and new

This passage is most likely to be found in _________.

      A．a story-book          B．a geography textbook

      C．a research report    D．a travel magazine

I had this exchange with my 6-year-old last week．

       Him: Mom, we have to start buying Danimals．

       Me: Why?

       Him: So, I can bring it to |school for lunch．It's yogurt ．

       Me: Why do you want it so badly?

       Him: Because Danimals i|s giving away five fantastic Caribbean vacations．

       I had to explain that there was little chance that he would win a vacation．It's a strategy used to encourage kids to beg for artificially-colored （人工着色的） yogurt that costs a lot．

       Marketing follows my kids —and yours—wherever they go ．It comes via TV commercials． Store displays and websites are also constantly selling at our kids ．But the most powerful means in kids" lives is the presence of licensed characters on every product imaginable．

       Children can begin their day in character clothing．There's even character -themed wall paint available．A breakfast in a character bowl can be followed by a character toothbrush and character toothpaste（牙膏）, character soap and shampoo, and a character wash cloth and towel ．Then, they can put on character clothing and character shoes．Check that, character clock on the wall: Is it time for characier-shaped fruit snacks yet?

       Surround kids with enough of the characters and they'll come to believe they need them．Most of us, of course, don't buy all those items．But say no to four products out of five and your home can still get filled with these tiny items encouraging brand loyalty （品牌忠诚）

       At this time of year, parents buy licensed school supplies．With so much marketing around us, it can be tough to stop the tide．

       "One thing that helps parents'is that they can talk to other parents about, this kind of thing," Linn suggested ．"If you decide you want to buck this, it helps to find other people who will do the same thing ．That way, if your child says．"Everyone's doing it," you can really have a sense of whether everyone is．" |

1.From the dialogue between the author and the son, we can infer that ____-

       A．the son likes drinking yogurt a lot．

       B．buying Danimals may win a free tour

       C．the son's school encourages kids to eat yogurt

       D．Danimals in the most popular yogurt among kids．

2.We can learn from th^ passage that     '

       A．character bowls increase kids' appetite．

       B．character-themed wall paint is expensive

       C．household goods are becoming the target of advertisers．

       D．Linn considered character-themed products a foolish marketing strategy．

3.The underlined word "buck" in the last paragraph probably means _____．

       A．support        B．resist           C．advertise            D．learn

4.What does the passage mainly tell us ?  ．

       A．Marketing is affecting kids all the time．

       B．Most kids now don't have a happy childhood,

       C．Kids like buying licensed school supplies a lot.

       D．Licensed character produce are doing great harm to kids.

 

The National Outline for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010 - 20) was released over the weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Four – percent effort

The government says spending on education will be 4 percent of GDP by 2012. globally, average spending on education is about 4.5% of GDP. China spend 3,33% in 2008. according to Hu Angang, of Tsinghua University’s Center for China Studies, even if China reaches that goal, it will only rank about 100 th out of 188 countries.

Administrative rank

Administrative rankings for school leaders are to be phased out to tackle the bureaucracy (官僚机构) problem that limits educational development, according to Cheng Fangping, of the national Institute for Educational Research. Areas like teaching programs, scientific research, and technological development will be more independent.

Vocational Education

The system will be free of charge. According to Wu Yan, of Beijing Institute of Educational Sciences, this will be key to developing China’s production capacity and will improve poor people’s lives dramatically.

Entering college

    Universities could eventually have the freedom to choose some of their own high school applicants. Normally, students are accepted based on the uniform national exam scores. Also, students who agree to go to a remote area could be admitted to university under special circumstances. The most likely change could come on the college entrance English test, which might be modeled on the IELTS or TOEFL. Students will be able to take it several times and pick their best score.

56．Which of the following is true in the future according to the passage?

      A．Applicants could take the IELTS or TOEFL instead of the college entrance English test.

       B．Colleges will be given the right to choose all of their own applicants.

       C．Vocational education will be party free to make people’s lives better.

       D．Applicants could sit for the college entrance English test more than once.

57．Which of the following words is closest in meaning to “uniform” in the last paragraph?

       A．formal      B．official     C．same D．united

58．We can learn from the passage even though our country spends 4% of GDP on education in 2012,          .

       A．there will still be 188 countries ahead of China in this aspect

       B．China will certainly overtake the global average spending on education

       C．there might be nearly 100 countries ahead of China in this aspect

       D．China will be the 100 th country to spend over the global average on education

59．From the third paragraph, we can infer that         .

      A．school leaders will have more freedom to manage the school

       B．schools will have more limits from the government

       C．School administrative rankings are to be strengthened to solve the bureaucracy problem

       D．schools and research centers will be fully independent from the government

While I was in 9 th grade, I built a circuit (电路装置) for the traffic system of our city. After getting the first prize. I got this valuable advice from my father; “Do whatever interests you, and don’t let the work challenge you, make sure you are challenging that work.”

I have always preferred the projects which are challenging and related to real life problems. I clearly remember building a shipping program several years ago. I divided the whole project into several small sections. When I understood it clearly, used my brainstorming skill on it, and gave some basic ideas. Then I asked my professor for help before jumping into coding (编码). At first, I did not know how to ask questions correctly and always asked the question “How do I do it?” As I  kept working and discussed with my professor, I became more comfortable and those “how ”questions soon turned into “what if I do this and that” types of questions.

It took me four days to write the code. The desire to solve the problem kept me sleepless all nights brainstorming in even greater details. Every time I saw my program running smoothly, I exploded with joy. I still remember the last day of my work. I was getting some problem and didn’t know what to do. At that moment, a man came in to clean. He has headphones, and he was dancing while cleaning the room. Seeing this, I burst out laughing. That moment calmed me. I regained energy and interest and started to work again, and soon I fixed the problem.

My success in the project proved that breaking up a large problem into small parts could help find a possible solution. Discussing the problem with others was also very beneficial. Now I have gained the confidence to attempt any kind of project.

59．According to the passage, the writer was interested in          .

      A．developing traffic systems

       B．doing challenging projects

       C．winning great prizes

       D．writing different codes

60．The writer asked the question “how do I do it” at first because         .

       A．he had no clear idea about his program

       B．he was too shy to express himself

       C．he wanted to he understood easily

       D．he preferred this kind of question

61．We learn from the passage that the writer’s shipping program         .

       A．would benefit people a lot

       B．was done together with others

       C．was difficult and needed patience

       D．cost much money and energy

62．What would be the best title of the passage?

       A．Do It Yourself

       B．No Pains, No Gains

       C．Learning with interest

       D．Practice Makes Perfect

Ⅶ.短文改错（每小题1.5分，共15分）

When tea and coffee were introduced to Europe in 18 th                  1.        

century, people thought they were harmful. But the King of                    2.        

Swede decided to find out whether it was true .It was                       3.        

happened that there had two brothers in prison                                4.        

at the time. The King ordered one of them drink tea                         5.        

every day and the other coffee. Both of them have lived                   6.         

many years with no problem. At the end the one who                       7.        

drink coffee every day died at the age of 83 and the                         8.        

other lived even long. Because of this, Swede is                              9.        

one of the countries which much tea and coffee are drunk today.              10.