第一部分 阅读理解 (共两节, 满分40分)

第一节 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

Watson entered Mr. Smith's office. The boss was a hard man. He fired people who didn't do well without giving them a second chance.

"Watson," said Mr. Smith, "this past year your department hasn't earned money. We're going to drop that department. It's finished. I’m sorry, —but you'll have to go." "But, sir — if I just had a little more time. For the moment I need the job to keep my son at Riverside School."

"What's that!" said the boss. "Riverside! I didn't know you had a boy there. That's an expensive school for a man with your salary."

"I know, sir. But he likes it there so much! He's a star athlete and the best boxer in the school. The boys call him Champ there."

The boss sat perfectly still for a long time — a faraway (恍惚的) look in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he said, "We've got to close your department, Watson. But you'll take over a new job in another department. It means longer hours—maybe more pay. Now get out. You're here for life."

Watson got out, with surprise on his face. Then the boss took a letter from the top drawer of his desk. It was Herbie's last letter from Riverside School —written a few days before he died. He had read it over and over again with sick pain. The letter read:

I can’t say the boys here are any nicer to me than the others were. I guess it's the same everywhere when you're a cripple (跛脚的人). But don't worry about me, Dad. They've got a good chemistry department here. And there’s one boy here who is really great. He's a track star and boxing champ (冠军) and just tops in chemistry. The boys call him Champ. He made them stop throwing my books around. And he knocked a boy down who hit me. He is the best friend I ever had. Dad, when I grow up, 1 want to do something for Champ. Something big — that he won’ t even know about.

Your son,

Herbie

1. Mr. Smith wanted to fire Watson because _____.

A. Watson would take over a new job in another department

B. Watson had his son study in Riverside School

C. Watson's son knocked a boy down who hit Herbie

D. Watson's department didn't earn money that year

2. We can learn from the text that _____.

A. Mr. Smith didn't know that Champ was Watson's son at first

B. Mr. Smith was told not to fire Watson by Herbie

C. Mr. Smith decided to give Watson another chance in no time

D. Mr. Smith wanted to realize Champ's dream

3. According to the text, which words can best describe Mr. Smith?

A. Selfish and greedy. B. Sympathetic and grateful.

C. Hardworking and strict. D. Easy-going and optimistic.

4. The author wrote the text in order to _____.

A. share a moving story with us B. make our children enjoy life

C. provide us with tips on work D. help us to deal with our boss

B

A brand is a name, word, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of a company or a group of companies. Another purpose of a brand is to contrast one company from another. The most important skill of professional marketers is the ability to create, maintain, protect, and enhance the brands of their products and services. Branding has become so important that today hardly any company or product is without one. Therefore, brand management is an increasingly important element in marketing.

Brand power refers to the relative strength of a company’s brand in the minds of consumers, and can influence consumers’ choice of products. Brands are powerful to the extent that they give high brand loyalty and strong brand associations, name recognition, perceived quality and other assets to a company. A strong brand can be one of a company’s most important assets.

High brand power provides a company with many competitive advantages. A powerful brand enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness and loyalty. Because consumers expect stores to carry the brand, the company has more bargaining power when negotiating with retailers (零售商). And because the brand name brings high credibility, a company with a strong brand can more easily launch new products with the same brand name.

Many companies use the advantage of a strong brand power strategically to expand their business. When a company introduces an additional item with a new flavour, form, colour or package size in a given product category and under the same brand name, it is called a line extension. Another strategy is called brand extension. This involves the use of a successful brand name to launch new or modified products in a new category, thereby employing brand recognition in order to increase sales of new products.

Brand recognition is certainly important. Because consumers often hold long-standing perceptions about brands, high brand power ensure a company continued sales of its products.

8. What might be the best title of this passage?

A. Brand Power B. Famous Brands

C. Company Brands D. Brand Products

 C

The booking notes of the play "the Age of Innocence":

Price: $10

BOOKING

There are four easy ways to book seats for performance:

------ in person

The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday, 10 a. m. -8 p. m.

-----by telephone

Ring 01324976 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card(Visa, MasterCard and Amex

accepted)

------ by post

Simply complete the booking form and return it to Global Theatre Box Office.

------on line

Complete the on-line booking form at www. Satanfiedtheatre. com

DISCOUNTS:

Saver: $2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday.

Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60s and full-time students.

Supersaver: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is

advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one

wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.

Standby: best available seats are on sale for $6 from one hour before the performance for people

eligible(suitable)for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.

Group Bookings: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.

School: school parties of ten or more can book $6 standby tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.

Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

12. From the passage we can know all the following information except that ________.

A. There are only 8 wheelchair spaces in the theatre.

B. The audience can't refund money if the performance is on show.

C. A group of 12 persons can get 10 percent discount.

D. A school party of 15 students should pay $90 for the standby tickets.

D

The fourth round of heavy smog to hit Beijing in four weeks has sent more people to the hospital with respiratory（呼吸的） illnesses and led to calls for laws to control the pollution.

Pan Shiyi, a celebrity real estate developer said he is planning to propose (提案) a Clean Air Act to the local government. As a representative to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, he started an online survey at 9:20 a.m. Within three hours, more than 25,000 web users, or 99 percent of total respondents（应答者）, welcomed his proposal on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter.

They have good reasons to stand alongside Pan. The latest round of haze（雾霾）reduced visibility to under 500 meters in many parts of the city. The smog has also led to a great increase in respiratory illnesses, particularly among children and the elderly. Anxious parents and doctors almost all blame the smoggy air for the illnesses. Though most schoolchildren are home for the winter holidays, the bad air can easily move indoors. Besides, ordinary medical masks fail to provide adequate protection, so some people have turned to gas masks and respirators（呼吸器）.

The causes of the scary smog are rather mysterious, though experts blame excessive emissions and the mountains around Beijing that trap pollution in winter, unless there is adequate wind to clear it away. Some critics have pointed fingers at China’s top two oil firms, China National Petroleum Corp and China Petrochemical Corporation, saying the companies’ outdated production technologies produce large quantities of substandard, high-polluting gas fuel.

Meanwhile, concerned Beijingers have moved their brainstorming sessions to cyberspace. If Pan’s proposal for a Clean Air Act is adopted, netizens say the new law should include items providing for “car-free days” in times of smog, higher standards for vehicle fuel, stricter restrictions on industrial and exhaust gas emissions, and more effective protection for the public.

Beijing is not the only city that has ever lost the blue sky. Five days of thick fog caused thousands of deaths in Britain in December 1952, urging the government to pass the first Clean Air Act in 1956, which introduced smokeless zones and cleaner fuels to reduce pollution. That may provide some experience for Beijing to refer to.

15.What’s the best title for this passage？

A．The Use of Gas masks and Respirators

B．Beijingers Call for Clean Air Act

C．Effective Protection for Blue Sky

D．The Mysterious Causes of the Scary Smog

第二节（共5小题，每小题2分，满分10分）

根据短文内容，从下面A~G选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。选项中有二项为多余项。

Culture Shock

Culture shock refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country.

Generally speaking, we could say that there are four stages of culture shock. The first stage is called “the honeymoon”. In this stage, you are excited about living in a different place. 16

The next stage is “the hostility(敌意)stage”. In this stage, you begin to notice not everything is as goo