Directions: Read the following passage and the statements that follow. Choose the best answer for each statement from the three choices marked A, B and C.

Directions: Read the following passage and the statements that follow. Choose the best answer for each statement from the three choices marked A, B and C.

Welcome to the Telfort Business Institute’s E280 Conversational English Class. The object of this course is to learn how to converse fluently and effectively in English. For the next eight weeks we will finely turn your skills in the act of debating and role-playing. We will also practice speech rhythm and diction with an emphasis on enunciation and specific speech problems encountered by those who are studying English as a foreign language.

Numerous discussions on a wide variety of subjects will be held, including topics of business, fiction, travel, differences between Western and Chinese culture, education and life experiences.

You will have ample opportunities to give oral presentations and voice your opinions on the various topics that we plan to cover. It is very important that you talk as much as you can. Don’t wait for your instructor to ask you to speak. If you have a question to ask, additionally, if you have any questions about anything your fellow students say, please feel free to ask.

1. The course of E280 is a conversational one().

A.True

B.False

C.Not Mentioned

2.Each boy and girl () given a gift on Christmas Day.

A.Is

B.Are

C.Were

D.was

Directions：Read the following passage and the statements that follow. Choose the best answer for each statement from the four choices marked A, B，C and D.

The Internet is an exciting tool that puts vast information at your fingertips. With a click of a mouse, it lets you buy an airline ticket, book a hotel, send flowers to a friend, or purchase your favorite stock.

Security on the Internet

Shopping online offers lots of benefits that you won’t find while shopping in a store or by mail. The Internet is always open—seven days a week, 24 hours a day—and bargains can be numerous online. Shopping on the Internet is no less safe than shopping in a store or by mail. Keep the following tips in mind to help ensure that your online shopping experience is a safe one.

EASY AS ABC

When exploring online, think ABC to remember the privacy and security questions you should ask about a company.

About me. What information does the company collect from me and is it secure?

Benefits. How does the company use that information and what is the benefit to me?

Choices. What choices do I have about the company’s use of information about me? Can I choose not to have the information used for other purposes, and how?

1.The real meaning behind “with the click of a mouse” may be ().

A.with the use of computer and internet

B.just the action of clicking the mouse

C.with the information

D.none of the above

2.Which of the following is the most efficient way to reduce age related memory loss()?

A.Eating more meat and doing more exercises.

B.Eating right foods and getting sufficient amounts of sleep

C.Taking more medicine and doing more exercises

D.Taking more herbs and eating more food

3.Most of his savings()in the Xin Hua Bank.

A.has been kept

B.is being kept

C.have kept

D.have been kept

4.By “permissive period in education” the author means a time().

A.when children are allowed to do what they wish to

B.when everything can be taught at school

C.when every child can be educated

D.when children are permitted to receive education

5.Jogging is the best way for stretching and relaxation and helps to reduce many diseases().

A.True

B.False

C.Not Mentioned

6.What is this passage mainly about()?

A.Shopping online safely

B.Differences between shopping online and in the store

C.Internet is convenient

D.Benefits of shopping online

7.We learn from the passage that the author’s mother used to lay emphasis on().

A.learning Latin

B.natural development

C.discipline

D.education at school

8. What’s the main idea of the text()?

A.Chinese fashion designer got start in the industry two decades ago

B.China has made a great difference in latest fashion

C.A small number of established Chinese designers have been in business for less than 10 years

D.The Chinese fashion world is constantly growing

9. The country had little interaction with the outside world, which meant all of the following but().

A.no fashion magazines

B.no designer labels

C.no events like China Fashion Week

D.no fashion designers

10.Jim is the only one of the staff members who()to be promoted.

A.are

B.have been

C.is

D.has been

11.The main idea of the passage is that().

A.parents should leave their children alone

B.kids should have more activities at school

C.it’s time to be more strict with our kids

D.parents should always set a good example to their kids

12.Which of the following is NOT true according to Paragraph 2()?

A.It is shown that one area of the brain known as the hippocampus is important in recalling information

B.The process of creating memories has been already understood and it involves three main steps.

C.Scientists believed that neurons first transform. the sensory stimuli into images in our immediate memory

D.Scientists don’t know exactly how the information is transferred from one area of the brain to another

13.Outdoor learning helps students learn in science and arts().

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Doesn’t say

14.All that can be done().

A.has done

B.has been done

C.have done

D.have been done

15. What should we do in order to communicate with the foreigners in a proper way()?

A.Shake hands with them whenever you meet the foreigners

B.Be familiar with their culture and use it in a correct way

C.Say “Where are you going?” instead of “Hi, have you had your meal?” when meeting on the street

D.Say nothing to them if we meet them

16.By paragraph 2 we can see Istanbul is().

A.a leisure city

B.a busy city

C.a developed city

D.a developing city

17. According to the text, the following sentences are true except().

A.Chinese designers are looking to foreign countries to find retail success

B.China had little interaction with the outside world two decades ago

C.China has gone from a fashion black hole to an industry hub in twenty years

D.the future of Chinese fashion is bright

Read the following passage and the statements that follow. Choose the best answer for each statement from the three choices marked A, B and C .

Outdoor Learning Environment

“How do they get the tomato on the vine(藤、蔓)?”

The question shocked Hillis. It reminded him of the time five years ago when he was volunteering at Beattie Elementary School in his daughter’s kindergarten classroom. He’d been reading the children a book about gardening.

“These kids had only seen vegetables in supermarkets,” he says. “I felt that something important was missing in their lives.”

So he went to work. Hillis and his wife, Sally, made the local government believe that it was necessary to create an outdoor learning environment. He and other volunteers raised more than 30,000 dollars to make such a project. The project was designed like the Platte River. Like the river, the school’s front walkway turns east to west, so they planted things along the walkway, such as native grasses which can be found along the river too.

Today, students are greeted every day by the cedar-mulched creation(雪松覆盖的表面), which spreads the length of three city blocks. In the back, there’s a garden, with twenty 1 ton rocks lying in the ground, where teachers hold classes.

The outdoor effort has changed things inside, too. For science, children plant seeds and, based upon each seed’s size and weight, guess how large a vegetable will grow to become. For arts and crafts, they collect fallen leaves and make designs out of them. Other science lessons make up a large part of the outdoor learning process. “No matter what time of the year it is,” Hillis says, “there’s always something going on.”

1.Hillis was a volunteer at Beatte Elementary School five years ago().

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Doesn’t say

2.Halloween was first celebrated by the()around the fifth century.

A.English

B.American

C.Irish

D.European

3. The purpose of this course is to make the students know various rules of English grammar().

A.True

B.False

C.Not Mentioned

4.Students can tell how large a tomato will grow to become according to the seed’s size().

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Doesn’t say

5.Craftsmen need knives and gravers of various types to make complicated patterns().

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Doesn’t say

6. Which of the following doesn’t belong to the western culture()?

A.Europe

B.North Africa

C.Asia

D.America

7. What is the author’s main idea in the text()?

A.Education can be purchased

B.The difference between education and schooling

C.Degree is worthless

D.Students should learn more important knowledge

8. The settlers also taught the Indians to penetrate the forest, to hunt large animals().

A.True

B.False

C.Not Mentioned

9.The passage is mainly about().

A.parts of the brain that store information

B.illness that results in serious memory loss

C.how human brains process, store and recall information

D.how to improve our memory

10.What do you think “ginseng and gingko” probably are()?

A.Plants

B.Animals

C.Food

D.Drinks

11.Halloween happened().

A.from October 31st to November 1st

B.on October 31st

C.on November 1st

D.between October 31st and November 1st

12. How many cultural differences does the author mention in the text()?

A.One

B.Two

C.Three

D.Four

(15 minutes)

Directions :

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and markA, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET1.

Some people were just born to rebel; Charles Darwin was one of them. (21) Nicholas Copernicus, Benjamin Franklin and Bill Gates. They were (22) "laterborns" - that is,they had (23) 0ne older sibling - brother or sister - when they were born.

(24), laterborns are up t0 15 times more likely than firstboms to (25) authority and break new (26), says Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In his book" Born To Rebel "being (27) this week, Sulloway claims that (28) someone is an older or younger sibling is the most important (29) shaping personality - more significant than gender ,race ,nationality (30) class.

He spent 26 years (31) the lives - and birth orders - of6,566 historical (32) to reach his conclusions.

A laterborn himself , Sulloway first (33) how birth order affected personality (34) a scholar of Darwin at Harvard University.

"How could a somewhat (35) student at Cambridge become the most (36) thinkerin the 19th century?" he said.

Darwin, the first t0 (37) the belief that God created the world with his theory of evolution,was the fifth of six children. Most of his (38) were firstborns.

Sulloway's theory held (39) with Copernicus, the first astronomer to (40) that the Sun was the center of the universe, and computer revolutionary Gates of Microsoft.

21.

[A] Likewise

[B] Likely

[C] Alike

[D] Unlike

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and

mark A, B, C, or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.

What might the house of the future be like? Grace can tell. More formally known as the Mi-crosoft Home, her high-tech devices, along with （26）in design and construction, will changethe（27）we think about our homes.

You enter the house, and Grace's （28） , coming from hidden speakers, passes on your mes-sages. In the kitchen, you set a bag of flour on the intelligently （29） stone counter. Grace sees what you're （30） , and projects a list of flour-based food on the counter. （31） you choose one, Grace repeats instructions for cooking. She （32） knows what's in the cupboard.

The day when your house will be like a family member is not that far off. This （33） 0f seamless computing, in which technology is everywhere yet nowhere （34） when we want it) ,is emphasized in most future-home thinking.

Microsoft, （35） , isn't the only one exploring （36） technology can make our homes more（37） and comfortable. At the Georgia lnstitute of Technology ,scientists are （38） systems that will allow older people to continue living （39）. So Grandma's home can be intelligently wired to （40） her patterns of wake, sleep and movement; family members would be （41） of any changes via computer.

Does spying on Grandma sound （42） ? Director Beth Mynatt says "A good bit of our （43has been working on how to convey information without （44） privacy. We also don't want tocreate（45）anxiety, Maybe she just took a quiet day to read, and the system would have to rec-ognize that. "

26.

[ A] promotions

[ B ] applications

[ C ] practices

[ D] advances

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B,C, or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.

Even today in the modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer to have a boy rather than a girl. One longstanding reason why boys have been (26) as a greater blessing has been that they are (27) to become better economic providers (28) their parents 'old age.Yet it is time for parents t0 (29) again. Girls may now be a better investment.

Girls get better (30) at school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to (31) . Women will thus be better (32) for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains (33) a lot more than physical strength. In Britain far more women than men are now (34) to become doctors. And women are more (35) to provide sound advice on investing their parents 'nest egg. Surveys show that women consistently (36) higher financial returns than men do.

(37) , the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main (38) force

of growth in the past couple of decades. Those women have (39) more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, China and India. Add the (40) of housework and child-rearing, and women probably account (41) just over half of the world output. It is (42) that women still get paid less and few (43) it to the top of companies, but, (44) prej-udice fades over coming years, women will have great scope t0 (45) their prlductivity and in-comes.

26.

[ A] seen

[ B ] observed

[ C] watched

[ D] noticed

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B,C, or D on ANSWER SHEET1.

Many people want to become famous, but don't know how. Here I'd like to tell about how to become known or get closer to people.

There are certain qualities that you have to remember while (26) people, be it a friend, a neighbour or anybody (27) you. The first thing is to remember their names and birthdays and never (28) them if you want to get closer to them, because this is (29) you start getting closer to people. You will have to reduce . (30) about yourself and start listening a lot. One of the im-portant (31) which can be used to get closer to people is to listen to them. (32) in today's management studies, listening is a very basic necessity in (33) such as business negotiations and international exchanges. (34) people to speak about themselves and be . (35) interested in them.

Another quality you will have t0 (36) is to appreciate people because everybody needs ap-preciation, but do not (37) it too far. If you are appreciating, let it be from the (38) 0f your heart. Everybody has got some good qualities or other which can be (39). So appreciate the good qualities. See to it that they don't feel (40) .Always remember to have a smile (41) your face whenever you meet people, because peo-ple don't like crying faces. Develop a good (42) 0f humour . Most important of all is to be(43) . So by all these you must know the (44) to reach people. Try those essentials (45)you will see people getting closer to you.

26.

[ A] treating

[ B ] introducing

[ C] handling

[ D] greeting

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B,C, or D on, ANSWER SHEET1.

A webcam is a digital camera that sends video images to other computer users. It's about the(26) 0f a pool ball and typically (27) 0n top of your computer monitor. Once the webcam is(28) to the USB port of your computer with the necessary software, (29) images of you can be sent to one or more users over the Internet (30)an instant messaging(IM) service.

A webcam costs about $50. More expensive models come with added (31) , such as better picture resolution. Two leading makers, Logitech and Creative, offer a range of models, (32)

software is included. There is no extra Internet (33) to send or receive video images, though you'll have t0 (34) for a free instant messaging service. Everyone can see and hear one another

in (35) time. Grandparents can see their grandkids more (36)' Webcams can work with al-most any computer bought in the past five years and can (37) long distance phone bills.(38) you have broadband, that is, a high-speed cable-modem or DSL connection, images may (39) a long time to download, (40) a slide show rather than a movie. While webcams are easy to link to your computer, learning to (41)the software can take time. You have to make some rearrangement with the configurations.

(42) you have a 56k modem and the people you want t0 (43) won't mind seeing live shots

instead of perfect video, a webcam is still fun. (44) before you buy, be sure everyone (45) for

the same IM service.

26.

[A] weight

[B] size

[C] volume

[D] space

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B,C, or D on ANSWER SHEET1.

Text

The American definition of success is largely one of acquiring wealth and a high material standard of living. It is not surprising, (26), that Americans have valued education for its mone-tary value. The belief is widespread in the United States (27) the more schooling people have, the more money they will (28) when they leave school. The belief is strongest (29) the desir-ability of an undergraduate university degree, or a (30) degree such as medicine or law (31)the undergraduate degree. The money value of graduate degrees in (32) such as art, history, or philosophy is not (33) great.

This belief in the monetary value of education is . (34) by research outcomes on income. Ben Wattenberg, a social scientist, estimates that in the(35) of a lifetime a man (36) a college school diplomain 1972 could earn about $ 380,000 more than a man wh0 (37)had a high school diploma. Perhaps this helps to explain survey (38) which showed that Americans who (39) they had lived their lives differently in some way regretted(40) 0f all that they did not-N get more education. The regret is (41) by those who have made (42) to the top and by those who have not. (43) a man like Douglas Fraser, the president of the United Auto Workers U-nion, a nationally known and successful leader, was (44) by regrets that he did not climb higher on the (45)ladder.

26.

[A] however

[B] therefore

[C] moreover

[D] though

Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B,

C, or D on, ANSWER SHEET 1.

It has always been a problem to decide whether "popular music" is music which represents the people or is simply music that the people like. The same problem of (26) exists with jazz. So many different (27) 0f music have been called jazz at one time or another that it is hard to say

what (28) it is. Jazz has always been considered to be black music (29) when I first (30)an interest in it twenty years ago, I used to hear white (31) playing music that was like Louis

Armstrong's in the 1920s. I found out afterwards that they learnt to do this by playing Armstrong's records over and over again until their style. was close enough to his ( 32) for them to

imitate him.

Since then white singers like Bob Dylan have rediscovered (33) 0wn folk tradition, instead of (34) from black roots. But the main (35) since 1960 have been social and technical. One is that young people have more (36) to spend on records at an earlier age than they used to, so Tin Pan Alley, the ' pop 'music industry, aims at the teenage audience. (37) is that electronic equipment has developed to such an (38) that technicians are now capable of mixing sound to (39) recordings that are quite different from alive (40) .

But the real (41) with 'pop' music is that Tin Pan Alley has always worked against its be-ing a (42) music of the people. It takes everything original and natural out of it and (43) it with cheap commercial imitations. (44) the American folk singer, Woody Guthrie, said:"They've always (45) the second-rate songs. They've never wanted to play the good ones. "

26.

[ A] definition

[ B] classification

[ C] imitation

[ D] discussion