18.

A)It failed because of a sudden rocket explosion.

B) It has been re-scheduled for a midday takeoff.

C) It has been canceled due to technical problems.

D) It was delayed for eleven hours and thirty minutes.

19.

A)They made frequent long-distance calls to each other.

B) They illegally used government computers in New Jersey.

C) They were found to be smarter than computer specialists.

D) They were arrested for stealing government information.

Passage Two

Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.

20.

A)Peaceful

B)Considerate

C)Generous

D)Cooperative

21.

A)Someone dumped the clothes left in the washer and dryer.

B)Someone broke the washer and dryer by overloading them.

C)Mindy Lance’s laundry blocked the way to the laundry room.

D)Mindy Lance’s threatened to take revenge on her neighbors.

22.

A)Asking the neighborhood committee for help.

B)Limiting the amount of laundry for each wash.

C)Informing the building manager of the matter.

D)Installing a few more washers and dryers.

Passage Three

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

23.A) She is both a popular and a highlyrespected author.

B) She is the most loved African novelist ofall times.

C) She is the most influential author sincethe 1930's.

D) She is the first writer to focus on the fate of slaves.

24. A) The Book Critics Circle Award.

B) The Pulitzer Prize for fiction

C) The Nobel Prize for literature.

D) The National Book Award.

25. A)She is a relative of Morrison's.

B) She is a skilled storyteller.

C) She is a slave from Africa.

D) She is a black woman

Section C

Directions: In this section, you will hear apassage three times. When the passage is read for the first time，you should listen carefullyfor its general idea.When the passage is read for the second time，you are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words you havejust heard. Finally，when the passage is read for thethird time，you should check what you have written.

注意：此部分試題請在答題卡1上作答。

Many collegestudents today own personal computer that cost anywhere from $1,000 to perhaps%5,000 or more. (26)_________, it is not uncommon for them to purchase (27)_________costinganother several hundred dollars. Twenty years ago, computers were (28)___________, but they were very large and extremely expensive. Few, if any,(29)__________ purchased computers for home use. Over the years, the price of the “guts”of a computer---its memory—has declined to less than a thousandth of the priceper unit of memory that prevailed twenty years ago. This is the main reason whycomputers cost so much less today than they used to. Moreover, (30)_________improvements have made it possible to (31) ___________memory circuitrythat is small enough to fit into the portable personal computers that many ofus own and use. (32)___________, as the price of computation has declined theaverage consumer and business have spent more on purchasing computers.

(33)___________,improvedagricultural technology, hybrid(雜交) seeds,(34)_________animal breeding, and soon have vastly increased the amount of output a typical farmer can produce. Theprices of goods such as meats and grains have fallen sharply relative to theprices of most other goods and services. As agricultural prices have fallen,many households have decreased their total expenses on food. Even though the (35)______________ofa product purchased generally increases when its price falls, total expenses onit may decline.

PartIII Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

Section A

To get a sense of how women have progressedin science take a quick tour of the physics department at the University ofCalifornia Berkeley.This is a storied place the 36 of some of the mostimportant discoveries in modern science-starting with Ernest Lawrence'sinvention of the cvclotron(回旋加速器)in 1931.Ageneration ago female faces were 37 and.even today,visitors walkingthrough the first floor of LeConte Hall will See a full corridor of exhibits 38 the many distinguished physicists who made history here, 39 allof there white males

But climb up to the third floor and you'llsee a 40 display.There,among the photos of current facnlty members andstudents are portraits of the 41 head of the department,Marjorie Shapiroand four other women whose reseaich 42 everything from the mecheanics ofthe universe to the smallest particles of matter.A sixth woman was hired justtwo weeks ago.Although they're Still only about 10 percent of the physicsfaculty,women are clearly a presence here.And the real 43 may be in thesmaller photos to the right graduate and undergraduate students about 20 percent of them female.Everyyears Berkeley sends its fresh female physics PhDs to the country's topuniversities.That makes Shapiro optimistic but also 44 "I believethings are getting bette "she says "but they're not getting better as 45 as i would like."

注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答

A)circumstance

B)confidence

C)covers

D)current

E)deals

F)different

G)exposing

H)fast

I)honoring

J)hope

K)presently

L)rare

M)realistic

N)site

O)virtually

注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2 上作答。

A) Why are we spending so much money oncollege? And why are we so unhappy about it. We all seem to agree that acollege education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedlyessential good. Maybe it’s time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious(大不敬的);is allthis investment in college education really worth it?

B)The answer, I fear, is no. For anincreasing number of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a collegediploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot oncampus.

C)For my entire adult life, a goodeducation has been the most important thing for middle-class households. Myparents spent more educating my sister and me than they spent on their bouse,and they’re not the only ones… and, ofcourse, for an increasing number of families , most of the cost oftheir house is actually the cost oftheir house is actually the cost of living in a good school district.Questioning the value of a college education seems a bit like questioning thevalue of happiness ,or fan.

D)The average price of all goods andservices has risen about 50 percent. Butthe price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time. Is theeducation that today’s students are getting twice as good? Are new workers twice assmart? Have they become somebodymassively more expensive to educate?

E)Perhaps a bit. Richard Vedder , an OhioUniversity economics professor , says, “I look at the data,and I see college costs rising faster than inflation up to the mid-1980s by Ipercent a year. Now I see them rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation.What has happened ? The federal government has started dropping money out ofairplanes,”Aid has increased ,subsidized (補貼的)loans have becomeavailable, and “the universities have gotten the money,” EconomistBryan Caplan , who is writing a book about education, agrees. “ It is agiant waste of resources that will continue as long as the subsidies continue.”

F) Promotional literature for colleges andstudent loans often speaks of debt as an “investment inyourself.” But an investment is supposed to generate income to pay off theloans. More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that donot require a degree, and the amount of student-loan debt carried by householdshas more than quintupled since 1999. These graduates were told that a diplomawas all they needed to succeed, but it won’t even get them outof the spare bedroom at Mom and Dad’s. For many, themost tangible result of their four years is the loan payments, which nowaverage hundreds of dollars a month on loan balances in the tens of thousands.

G)It’s true about themoney—sort of. College graduates now make 80 percent more than people whohave only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, thewage premium for an elite school seems to be even higher. But that’s not trueof every student. It’s very easy to spend four years majoring in English literature andbeer pong and come out no more employable than you were before you went in.Conversely, chemical engineers straight out of school can easily make triple orquadruple the wages of an entry-level high-school graduate.

H) James Heckman, the Nobel Prize–winningeconomist, has examined how the returns on education break down for individualswith different backgrounds and levels of ability. “Even withthese high prices, you’re still finding a high return for individuals who are bright andmotivated,” he says. On the other hand, “if you’re notcollege ready, then the answer is no, it’s not worth it.” Expertstend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today,but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and moreof the potential return. For borderline students, tuition hikes can push thosereturns into negative territory.

I)Everyone seems toagree that the government, and parents, should be rethinking how we invest inhigher education—and that employers need to rethink the increasing use of collegedegrees as crude screening tools for jobs that don’t reallyrequire college skills. “Employers seeing a surplus of college graduates and looking to filljobs are just tacking on that requirement,” says Vedder. “De facto, acollege degree becomes a job requirement for becoming a bartender.”

J) We have started tosee some change on the finance side. A law passed in 2007 allows many studentsto cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives anybalance after 25 years. But of course, that doesn’t control the costof education; it just shifts it to taxpayers. It also encourages graduates tochoose lower-paying careers, which diminishes the financial return to educationstill further. “You’re subsidizing people to become priests and poets and so forth,” saysHeckman. “You may think that’s a good thing, or you may not.” Either way it willbe expensive for the government.