Directions:In this part, there is one passage followed by a summary. Read the passage carefully and complete the summary with the maximum of three words from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet.
Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
NO CASH, NO PROBLEM As technology continues to develop, people are changing the way they pay for things. Many of us have a cash card or a credit card, but more and more people carry a cashless card-a computerized “smart card.” These lucky people never have to look for money, or carry around a heavy wallet full of coins. With these cards we are one step closer to a more convenient and cashless society. The idea behind cashless cards is to get rid of small change and to save time.
Many American and British students use these cards to buy food or drinks at college cafeterias and even to ride buses. These cards also act as ID cards. Students use the cards to access buildings and computer files, or check out books from the library. College cafeteria staff say the cards have reduced waiting time at checkouts on campus. Users can put money from their bank accounts onto smart cards at special machines on or around campus.
There is one big problem with smart cards. If an owner loses his or her smart card, the cash that is stored on it can be used by whoever finds it. However, to protect the user, most cards have the owner’s photograph on them.
Summary:
Section B Yes / No / Not given(5 points)
Directions: In this part, you will have 5 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on the Answer Sheet. For questions 1 - 5, mark
Y (for Yes) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for No) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for Not Given) if the information is not given in the passage.
Questions 56-60 are based on the following passage.
The Outdoor Centre Opening times
Water sports: 10 am - 6 pm
Play Park: 10 am - 5.30 pm
Entrance / Car park fees
Low season: Weekdays £2.00 per car Weekends £3.00 per car
High season: 23 July - 11 September Weekdays and weekends £3.00 per car
Fees are for cars with four people. Each extra person is 50p. Fees to be paid at the main office.
The center is not a private club; it is an organization whose aim is to provide outdoor sports and recreation facilities for the public.
Group visitors are requested to inform the center in advance of their intended visit.
Windsurfing—One-day course
Beginner windsurfing course is offered on Saturdays and Sundays when the weather is good enough. Learning to windsurf is a lot of fun. The excitement when you sail across the water for the first time is not easily forgotten. Boards with small sails are available for beginners.
Course fee: £32.50 (this includes all equipment)
One-day adventure course
This is an opportunity you have been waiting for. Come and try sailing, climbing, surfing and archery. This course is intended to introduce outdoor activities to adults in a fun, leisurely manner. You do not need to be extremely fit or to have had previous experience of the activities. All you need is to be interested.
Course fee: £22.50
Play Park
The Play Park is suitable for children from two to ten years of age. It is one of the best of its type in the country. It has sand and water play, slides, large ball pool, play castle and much, much more. Next year the center will open a new Play Palace and Play Ship.
Summer adventure holidays (for 14 - 18 years of age)
Sailing Climbing Windsurfing Fun Games
Statement:
Safety is of primary importance at the Outdoor Center. All staff members are fully trained in First Aid, and qualified to teach the activities on offer. We also make certain that all children only take part in activities that are suitable for their age and physical abilities. For this programme children must be able to swim 25 metres and be in good physical health.
Statements:
1.In August, four people visiting the centre together by car have to pay more than two people.
2.The centre has special equipment for people who learn to sail.
3.The adventure course is suitable for beginners.
4.The centre is planning to add extra facilities to the Play Park.
5.Summer adventure holidays are open to any child between eight and fourteen years who can swim.
At the()of the police, those people ran off in all directions.
Directions:There is one passage in this section with 5 statements. Go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on the Answer Sheet.
For questions 1-5, mark
Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO ) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
Visiting the White House White House Tours
Public tours of the White House are available for groups of 10 or more people. Requests must be submitted through one’s Member of Congress and are accepted up to six months in advance. These self-guided tours are available from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday (excluding federal holidays), and are scheduled on a first come, first served basis approximately one month in advance of the requested date. We encourage you to submit your request as early as possible since a limited number of tours are available. All White House tours are free of charge. For the most current tour information, please call the 24-hour line at 202-456-7041. Please note that White House tours may be subject to last minute cancellation.
White House Visitor Center
All tours are significantly enhanced if visitors stop by the White House Visitor Center located at the southeast corner of 15th and E Streets, before or after their tour. The Center is open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and features many aspects of the White House, including its architecture, furnishings, first families, social events, and relations with the press and world leaders, as well as a thirty-minute video. Allow between 20 minutes to one hour to explore the exhibits. The White House Historical Association also sponsors a sales area. Please note that restrooms are available, but food service is not.
Mobility-Impaired / Using a Wheelchair
Guests requiring the loan of a wheelchair should notify the officer at the Visitors Entrance Building upon arrival.
Wheelchairs loans are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations are not possible.
Visitors in wheelchairs, or with other mobility disabilities, on the Congressional guided or self-guided tours, between 8:00 a.m. and 12 noon, use the same Visitor entrance and, with up to four members of their party, are admitted without waiting in line and without tickets.
Visitors in wheelchairs are escorted by ramp from the entrance level to the ground floor, and by elevator from the ground to the state floor. Guests generally wait in line with their family or group.
Hearing-Impaired
Tours for hearing-impaired groups may be arranged in advance by writing to the Visitors Office, White House, Washington, DC 20502. Tours are usually scheduled at 9:30 a.m., between the Congressional and public tour times. Participants enter at the East Appointment gate. A U.S. Secret Service / Uniformed Division Tour Officer conducts the tour in sign language. Signed tours are available to groups of 8 to 20. Groups are also encouraged to bring their own interpreters.
Signing interpretation is also available for individual visitors with advance notice. A Congressional office first issues guided tour tickets to a guest who is hearing-impaired and then contacts the Visitors Office at least 2 weeks in advance to request interpreter service.
The Visitors Office TDD (telephone device for the deaf) is 202-456-2121. Messages may be left outside normal business hours.
Visually-Impaired
Tours for visually-impaired groups may be arranged in advance by writing to the Visitors Office, White House, Washington, DC 20502. The tours are usually scheduled at 9:30 a.m., between the Congressional and public tour times. Participants enter at the East Appointment gate. A U.S. Secret Service / Uniformed Division Tour Officer permits visitors to touch specific objects in the House. Touch tours are currently available only to groups of 8 to 20, not to individual visitors. Guide animals are permitted in the White House.
General Tour Information
All White House tours are free. Changes in tour schedules are occasionally made because of official events. Notice may not be given until that morning. The Visitors Office 24-hour Information Line recording at 202-456-7041 provides the most up-to-date information. The TDD is 202-456-2121. Visitors should confirm tour schedules by calling the information line the night before and the morning that they plan to visit. It is occasionally necessary to close individual rooms on the tour; however, notice about closed rooms is not possible.
Prohibited Items
Prohibited items include, but are not limited to, the following: handbags, book bags, backpacks, purses, food and beverages of any kind, strollers, cameras, video recorders or any type of recording device, tobacco products, personal grooming items (make-up, hair brush or comb, lip or hand lotions, etc.), any pointed objects (pens, knitting needles, etc.), aerosol containers, guns, ammunition, fireworks, electric stun guns, mace, martial arts weapons / devices, or knives of any size. The U.S. Secret Service reserves the right to prohibit any other personal items. Umbrellas, wallets, cell phones and car keys are permitted.
Please note that no storage facilities are available on or around the complex. Individuals who arrive with prohibited items will not be permitted to enter the White House.
Parking
The closest Metrorail stations to the White House are Federal Triangle (blue and orange lines), Metro Center (blue, orange, and red lines) and McPherson Square (blue and orange lines). On-street parking is not available near the White House, and use of public transportation is strongly encouraged.
Restrooms / Public Telephones
The nearest restrooms and public telephones to the White House are in the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion (the park area south of the White House) and in the White House Visitor Center. Restrooms or public telephones are not available at the White House.
Statements:
1.All White House tours are free of charge except on federal holidays.
2.The White House Visitor Center provides free drinks but not food service.
3.Wheelchair reservation service is provided by the officer at the Visitors Entrance Building.
4.Hearing-impaired visitors can request signing interpretation service from the Visitors Office.
5.Touch tours are currently only offered to visually-impaired groups of 8 to 20.
Directions:In this section, there is one passage followed by 5 questions. Read the passage carefully, then answer the questions in a maximum of 10 words. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet.
High Dropout Rate in US
Many young people in the United States never finish high school. Exactly how many dropouts is another issue. Recent studies of dropout rates have had conflicting results. For one thing, schools define and measure their dropout rates differently.
Some researchers say about fifteen to twenty parents of public school students do not complete their education. But many other experts and policymakers believe that for the past twenty years, the dropout rate has been around thirty percent. For Latino and black students, the numbers are even higher. Researchers say almost half of them leave school.
At the same time, almost half the states let students leave school before the age of eighteen without informing their parents.
Finding a good job without a high school education is more and more difficult. A Northeastern University study in 2002 found that almost half of all dropouts aged sixteen to twenty-four did not have a job.
The lack of high school education can also lead to other problems. An estimated two-thirds of prisoners in the United States dropped out of high school.
Recent studies have shown that the majority of students who drop out do not do it because they are failing. Many are bored with their classes or feel disconnected from their school and teachers. Some students feel that educators place low expectations on them. Teen pregnancies also add to the dropout problem.
During the past twenty years, there have been efforts to increase graduation rate through education reforms. Some communities are working on dropout prevention programs. These include alternative high schools to meet special needs.
Some programs, for example, provide free transportation and childcare to help young mothers and fathers finish school. Yet special programs can cost a lot, and many school systems have limited budgets.
Federal spending on second-chance programs to help students finish school has decreased from the 1970s. This was shown in a report last year from the Educational Testing Service.
Experts suggest "early warning systems" to help identify young schoolchildren at risk of dropping out of high school. They say schools also need to get parents more involved, especially if their children are missing school often.
Questions:
1.What is the researchers’ estimated percentage of school dropouts among Latino and black students?
2.What efforts have been made to increase graduation rates?
3.What has been done to help young parents complete their education?
4.Who made a report about the decrease,of Federal spending on second-chance programs to help students finish school?
5.What do experts suggest setting up to help prevent students from dropping out of school?
Directions: Study the following graphs carefully and write an essay in 160-200 words. Your essay should cover these three points: (1)effect of the country’s growing human population on its wildlife (2)possible reason for the effect (3)your suggestion for wildlife protection Your essay must be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET.
Directions: Read the following texts from which 10 words have been removed. Choose from the words A—O the most suitable one to fill each numbered gap in the text (1—10). There are FIVE extra words that you do not need to use. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.Practice 1 Many students find the experience of attending university lectures to be a confusing and frustrating experience. The lecturer speaks for one or two hours, perhaps 1 the talk with slides, writing up important information on the black-board, distributing reading material and giving out 2 . The new student sees the other students continuously writing on notebooks and wonders what to write. Very often the student leaves the lecture 3 notes which do not catch the main points and which become hard even for the 4 to understand. Most institutions provide courses which assist new students to develop the skills they need to be 5 listeners and note-takers. If these are unavailable, there are many useful study-skills guides which 6 learners to practice these skills independently. In all cases it is important to 7 the problem before actually starting your studies. It is important to 8 that most students have difficulty in acquiring the language skills required in college study. One way of 9 these difficulties is to attend the language and study-skills classes which most institutions provide throughout the academic year. Another basic 10 is to find a study partner with whom it is possible to identify difficulties, exchange ideas and provide support.[A] with[B] effective[C] strategy[D] tackle[E] students[F] enable[G] acknowledge[H] illustrating[I] sustain[J] ignore[K] assignments[L] information[M] average[N] advocate[O] overcoming
Practice 2
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic Statistics in People’s Daily Expenses in Xi’an. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
Directions: In this part, there is one passage followed by a summary. Read the passage carefully and complete the summary with the maximum of three words from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet.
Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
Bright colors stir up a range of feelings. For example, the color red can cause people to feel excited.
In fact, red can even make a person feel hungrier. Yellow can increase energy. Therefore, a room with strong red and yellow colors would be a good place to eat a lot of food quickly. On the other hand, darker colors, like blue can help people calm down. A blue room can be a good place to study, since people can concentrate more easily. However, it is easier to nod off in a blue room than in a red one.
The colors of clothes can also affect feelings. Black and dark blue clothes can produce a sense of strength and seriousness. Therefore, a person in a black suit can seem like a leader more easily than one wearing white. If a person is wearing a dark suit and a red tie, he may seem both powerful and energetic. This may be why many politicians and businessmen wear dark suits with red ties. Brown and green clothes can produce a sense of confidence. It may seem easier to trust a person wearing green. Therefore, many people wear green or brown for meetings or interviews.
Choice of color, for rooms as well as clothes, is not only about appearance.
Summary:
Section B Yes / No / Not given(5 points)
Directions: In this part, you will have 5 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on the Answer Sheet. For questions 1 - 5, mark
Y (for Yes) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for No) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for Not Given) if the information is not given in the passage.
Questions 56-60 are based on the following passage.
The Outdoor Centre Opening times
Water sports: 10 am - 6 pm
Play Park: 10 am - 5.30 pm
Entrance / Car park fees
Low season: Weekdays £2.00 per car Weekends £3.00 per car
High season: 23 July - 11 September Weekdays and weekends £3.00 per car
Fees are for cars with four people. Each extra person is 50p. Fees to be paid at the main office.
The center is not a private club; it is an organization whose aim is to provide outdoor sports and recreation facilities for the public.
Group visitors are requested to inform the center in advance of their intended visit.
Windsurfing—One-day course
Beginner windsurfing course is offered on Saturdays and Sundays when the weather is good enough. Learning to windsurf is a lot of fun. The excitement when you sail across the water for the first time is not easily forgotten. Boards with small sails are available for beginners.
Course fee: £32.50 (this includes all equipment)
One-day adventure course
This is an opportunity you have been waiting for. Come and try sailing, climbing, surfing and archery. This course is intended to introduce outdoor activities to adults in a fun, leisurely manner. You do not need to be extremely fit or to have had previous experience of the activities. All you need is to be interested.
Course fee: £22.50
Play Park
The Play Park is suitable for children from two to ten years of age. It is one of the best of its type in the country. It has sand and water play, slides, large ball pool, play castle and much, much more. Next year the center will open a new Play Palace and Play Ship.
Summer adventure holidays (for 14 - 18 years of age)
Sailing Climbing Windsurfing Fun Games
Statement:
Safety is of primary importance at the Outdoor Center. All staff members are fully trained in First Aid, and qualified to teach the activities on offer. We also make certain that all children only take part in activities that are suitable for their age and physical abilities. For this programme children must be able to swim 25 metres and be in good physical health.
Statements:
1.In August, four people visiting the centre together by car have to pay more than two people.
2.The centre has special equipment for people who learn to sail.
3.The adventure course is suitable for beginners.
4.The centre is planning to add extra facilities to the Play Park.
5.Summer adventure holidays are open to any child between eight and fourteen years who can swim.