Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

　　Raj is a middle-aged man. Although he was bom in a poor family, he was raised well.His father owned a welding (焊接)shop, and used to work for more than 12 hours a day, so that his family could lead a comfortable life.

　　However, Raj’s father could not earn sufficient money to provide a decent life to his family. Being an average student in school, Raj used to score around 70 percent marks. Raj’s dream was to become a doctor. Since his marks weren’t very high, he could not get the desired course. Instead，he joined a bachelor’s degree course, completed the course successfully，and got a job in a company.

　　While his life was going on with no dramatic change, his father continued to work in his welding shop, so that he did not have to depend on Raj. After getting a permanent job, Raj got married and at the same time was also promoted in his job.

　　Later，Raj began to earn a handsome salary，and started to live luxuriously. He bought a new house. Although his company provided him with a car, Raj purchased a new car!

　　After an extravagant (奢侈的)life that lasted almost 6 to 7 years，Raj was neither able to manage all the household expenses, nor pay for the children's education and other basic necessities.

　　It so happened that Raj's father fell sick, and as a result, could not continue his work. He requested Raj to give him some money. Raj, already suffering from financial crisis, refused to help.

　　After a week, while Raj was on an official tour, he met a boy aged about 10 years selling toys. The boy requested Raj to buy something. Raj asked the boy why he was selling toys instead of studying. The boy replied, “My father had an accident. He cannot work now. My mother works as a maid. I’m helping my parents by selling these toys. I go to school in the morning, and sell toys in the evening. I work for three hours a day and study at night!”

　　Raj purchased a few toys from the little boy. He thought about what the boy had said. He realized that he had been wrong in the way he treated his parents. He had learnt a lesson from the boy. At a very small age, this boy was helping his parents, but Raj, in order to meet the demands of his own lavish (奢侈的)lifestyle, had neglected his parents.

A.A comfortable life

B.A miserable life.

C.A decent life.

D.A lonely life.

A.he didn’t have enough money for the desired course

B.he didn't score well enough in school

C.he wanted to become a doctor

D.he got a job in a company

A.He got fired.

B.He lost his new car.

C.He had no house to live in.

D.He suffered from financial crisis.

A.He tried to get some experience while at school.

B.He wanted to earn money to help his family.

C.He wanted to take care of himself.

D.He wasB too poor to go to school.

A.We can make a living on our own regardless of age.

B.One should be responsible for one's parents.

C.People should depend on their parents.

D.It is you that can help yourself.

Passage 2 

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage. 

　　Maria Montessori based her educational plan upon the observation of children in diverse cultures. Therefore, her discoveries are not accurately described as Montessori principles. They are universal principles of human behavior, which belong to all peoples, societies, and cultures. These universal principles are a sound foundation for educational systems everywhere.

　　As a medical student at the University of Rome, Montessori studied the origin and formation of living beings. When she returned to the University of Rome, after a successful medical career, to study education, philosophy and other subjects, Montessori remained attracted by development in all forms of life. While working with children and young adults, she recognized specific stages in human formation. Eventually, she identified four such planes of development. There are two planes of childhood, resulting at age twelve in a mature child,and two planes of adulthood, resulting at age twenty-four in adult maturity.

　　To highlight the dramatic nature of the child's change from one stage of development to the next, Montessori compared developmental planes to the transformation of a butterfly. The various stages of larva (幼虫)，chiysalis (踊)，and adult butterfly are so different as to be unrecognizable one from the other. So, too, the differences of each plane of human formation are so extraordinary that the young person appears in each as a re-created being. Each of these four planes of development builds upon the last so that faulty development in any one affects the successful completion of all the others. 

　　Montessori observed that regular education fails to notice these planes of development.In fact, the first stage of development, from birth to age six, is ignored because schooling does not begin until it is over. She referred to the school children of her day as so many “dried butterflies” pinned to a display board. She drew a chart depicting the linear ascent (直线上升) of education based as it is upon feeding information to children as if they were blanks to be imprinted upon.

　　In contrast, Montessori drew a chart reflecting the actual development of children. It shows that in each plane there is an emergence or rebirth of development that reaches a peak and then declines. It emphasizes the regularity of human development in this regard. Montessori believed that schooling should correspond to the child’s developmental periods. “Instead of dividing schools into nursery, primary, secondary, and university, we should divide education in planes and each of these should correspond to the phase the developing individual goes through.”

A.Her discoveries are accepted throughout the world.

B.Her discoveries are beneficial to people in many countries.

C.Her discoveries are a sound foundation for academic research.

D.Her discoveries are made by obseiVing children in diverse cultures.

A.To start working with chiljiren and young adults.

B.To study education, philosophy and other subjects.

C.To research on the four stages of human development.

D.To continue her study of the origin and formation of living beings.

A.The stages of child development affect one another.

B.The faulty development in one plane is caused by the last.

C.The child appears re-created in each developmental plane.

D.Developmental planes are the same as the transformation of a butterfly.

A.It puts a special emphasis on students，scores.

B.It ignores the first stage of child development.

C.It cares little about students’learning motivations.

D.It feeds children to the extreme as if they are enjpty-minded.

A.Each plane starts at rebirth, reaches its peak and then declines

B.Education in each plane should not be divided but integrated.

C.Education in each plane should take natural talent into consideration.

D.Each plane demands regularity in primary, secondary school or university.

Passage 3

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the,following passase.

A ritual is any“have-to" behavior that is predictably and compulsively engaged in.

Personal feelings are secondany to these mandates. You give the birthday gift or celebrate

Mother's Day whether you feel like it or not.

Transgressing (违反) a ritual usually causes discomfort or hostility. For example, a

husband gets angry when dinner is late. Or the wife gets angry because her husband forgot to

kiss her at the door or does not wish to visit his in-laws on Sunday afernoon. Often there is a

furious outburst. The one who did not carry out the ritual is made to feel guilty while the

“denied" person feels rejected and angry.

Rituals disguise the process of the relationship, what it would look like if left to

spontaneous interaction. The resistance and resentment surrounding a ritualistic "should"

response emerges indirectly. A man who comes home for dinner at six, though he would have

preferred being elsewhere, may show resentment through distraction, forgetting things,

non-participation in the conversation at the table, or may suddenly explode over a minor

incident.

In my research on people's honeymoon experiences, a large percentage of those looking

back years later expressed disappointment, particularly women, who felt freer to be honest

about their feelings. Giving the good-night kiss, doing things together, and "being nice" to

each other are all a part of the rituals of honeymoons. There is great pressure to suppress any

resistances, boredom, or conflicting feelings. Consequently, it is not uncommon for one

partner or both to drink too much or become ill during the honeymoon, shortening the length

of the trip. The honeymoon experience is full of ritualitic behavior and expectations that

produce sudden, unpredictable outbursts of anger over petty incidents.

In general, the more polarized (两极化的) the couple in their masculine-feminine (男女

的) conditioning. the less they can share on an active, daily basis. Consequenly, they require

a maximum of ritualistic behavior to structure the relationship. On the contrary, the more two

people choose each other as partners out of genuinec liking rather than ability to play a tole.

the less ritualized their interaction will need to be. A good-night kiss can be joyfully and

passionately given, but it bcomes a ritual if no real choice is being made.

A. A behavior improving itepersonal relations.

B. A behavior aousing positive feelings.

C. A behavior neglected and disregarded.

D. A behavior required and expected.

A. Angry.

B. Indifferent.

C. Guilty.

D. Bored.

A. He forgets to give his wife a kiss at the door.

B. He gets a gift that is not his favorite on his birthday.

C. He spends a whole Saturday afernoon with his parents.

D. He comes back home while he prefers to be elsewhere.

A. Few partners drank too much or became ill.

B. The couples usually lost their temper for nothing.

C. The length of the honeymoon trip was seldom shortened.

D. A lot of women were disappointed at their honeymoon experiences.

A. The relationship of a couple is based on ritualistic behavior.

B. Genuine liking helps prevent problems caused by rituals.

C. The importance of rituals varies from culture to culture.

D. Polarized couples get along well in life.

Passage 4

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

Everyone is trying to convince you of something. And you spend a lot of time trying to

decide what you should do, that is, trying to convince yourself. Thinking critically is a

defense against a world of too much information and too many people trying to convince us.

But it is more. Reasoning is what distinguishes us from beasts. Many of them can see better,

can hear better, and are stronger. But they cannot plan, they cannot think through,they canmot

discuss in the hopes of understanding better.

A student majoring in anhropology(人类学) took the course of critical thinking. Then

he went over his term paper, analyzing it as we would in class,and made some changes in it.

He showed me the professor's comments, which were roughly "Beautifull reasoned, clear.

A+." He said it was the first A+ he'd ever gotten. I can't promise that you'll get an A on all

your term papers afer taking this course. But you'll be able to comprehend better what you're

reading and write more clearly and convincingly.

Once in a while I'll tune into a sports talk show on the radio. All kinds of people call in.

Some of them talk nonsense, but more often the comments are clear and well reasoned. The

callers know the details, the facts, and make serious projections (推测) about what might be

the best strategy based on past experience. They comment on what caused a team to win or

lose; they reason with great skill and reject bad arguments. I expect that you can too, at least

on subjects you consider important. What we hope to do in this course is hone (磨练) that

skill, sharpen your judgment, and show you that the methods of evaluating reasoning apply to

much in your life.

In trying to understand how to reason well, we'll also study bad ways to convince, ways

we wish to avoid, ways that misuse emotions or rely on deception. You could use that

knowledge to become a bad trial lawyer, but I hope you will learn a love of reasoning well,

for it is not just ethical to reason well; it is more effective in the long run. Critical thinking is

part of the study of philosophy: the love of wisdom. We might not reach the truth, but we can

be searchers, lovers of wisdom, and treat others as if they are, too.

A. People are fooling themselves.

B. People tend to do critical thinking.

C. People are trying to convince others.

D. People spend a lot of time making bad decisions.

A. To make good judgments.

B. To convince other people.

C. To design college courses.

D. To plan things well.

A. how to reject bad arguments

B. how reasoning is used in daily life

C. how to use strategies to win a game

D. how popular the program is among the callers

A. We should learn to think critically.

B. We should try to avoid bad ways of study.

C. People can surely reach the truth by reasoning.

D. Reasoning helps people deal with ethical problems.

A. A sports commentator.

B. A businessman.

C. A trial lawyer.

D. A teacher.

Passage 5

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

Mary has a huge smile on her face. The 18-year-old from Arlington has a lot of reasons to be happy. Her high school graduation is just days away. She goes to Guatemala in the summer to work there with her church. Then, in the fall, she will head to Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

But that is not why she is smiling right now. Tonight, in a beautiful long dress, with her hair perfectly curled, she is excied to be going to prom. A prom is a formal dance for high school students that's usually at the end of the year.

Bom in the United States more than 100 years ago, prom has spread to other parts of the world. In America, it hass become an industry similar to the wedding buiness. A study found that, on average, an American family spends more than 900 dollars on prom.

Much of it is spent on what the young adults wear to the formal dance. And then there are costs linked to hair and makeup, lowers for prom dates, dinner and transportation. It ads up. But some sudents find ways to make the event more economical.“I borrowed my dess," says Maggie. Like Mary, Mggie is a senior at Yorktown High School in Arlington. She got her makeup done without cost by a friend.

Mary also cuts costs. She bought her dress online for far less than she would have paid in the stores She also did her own hair. Many girls choose to get ready for he prom with friends. They might get their hair done at a beuty shop together or hire a professional makeup artist to share the costs.

Probably the least costly thing about prom is the ticket  to the dance. Yorktown held its event at a hotel in Arligton. The tickets were $45. Maggie and Mary were amomg about 15 friends who spent the evening together. This is a common tradition. The kids will gahter a student's house, and then go to dinner together at a restaurant.

Asking someone to pom, however, is no small task in the United States. "Promposals," as they are called, are supposed to take time to plan. Someimes a kid will make a big poster to invite someone to prom. Some kids might buy a gift to present when they ask somcone to prom. Some promposals can be far more elaborate but most promposals are simple and sweet.

And sometimes getting the "yes" response is the best part of prom.

A. Elizabethtown College has accepted her.

B. She will serve the church this summer.

C. She is going to a formal dance tonight.

D. Her high school graduation is coming soon.

A. It is a money-consuming industry.

B. It is celebrated only in a few states.

C. It is popular with college students.

D. It is part of the wedding business.

A. She did her own hair.

B. She borrowed her dress.

C. She bought her dress online.

D. She shared prom costs with friends.

A. Hire a makeup artist.

B. Make a poster.

C. Write a letter.

D. Buy a ticket.

A. Prom: An American High School Tradition

B. Prom: A Special Wedding Ceremony

C. Prom: A New Costly Industry

D. Prom: A Competitive Business