Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center. Passage One
Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.
Chaz Albert is a passionate “texter,” someone who loves to send and receive text messages via cell phone. He does it at home, at school and at work. He often prefers texting over talking on his cell phone.
In the last two years, text messages — which cell carriers generally limit to 160 characters — have become a rage among teenagers, who embrace the technology as yet another way to escape a boring class or stay in touch with friends.
But text-messaging, or texting for short, has a downside. It can be expensive. Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging’s pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills when they get involved in keypad conversations that involve hundreds, even thousands, of messages a month. The results are angry confrontations with parents, long-term payment plans and the loss of cell phone privileges.
Text-messaging has flourished for years in Europe and Asia, where it is immensely popular among young people. In the United States, activity was limited until 2002, when a breakthrough in the wireless market allowed short text messages to be sent among customers of the major cellular carriers. Previously, customers could send messages only to those who used the same carrier.
The service, known as S.M.S. (for Short Message Service), has since taken off. According to a recent report Americans sent 2.5 billion text messages a month in mid-2004, triple the number sent in mid-2002.
Teenagers are clearly driving the trend. “Younger people do text messaging a lot more than older folks,” said Mr. Nogee. “They’re more used to it from instant messaging on the computer, from growing up with it. Older people would rather call up and talk.‖ 11. The word “texter” (Line 1, Para 1) mainly refers to . A. people who only call up and talk on cell phones
B. people who not only “tezting”, but also call up on cell phones C. people who never call up but only send messages on cell phones D.people who do a lot more messaging than calling with a cell phone 12. Why are teenagers so addicted to text-messaging? A) texting is much cheaper than making calls
B) texting is regarded as another way of escape a boring class or stay in touch with friends
C) texting on a cell phone allows unlimited characters
D) texting has flourished for many years in Europe and Asia 13. One downside of text-messaging is .
A) it may be expensive if one are not so familiar with its paying format B) it may be a waste of time
C) one may become less talkative on the phone D) it usually has a limitation of 160 characters
14. Which of the following version is NOT true according to the article?
A) Younger people are more used to instant messaging on a computer than older folks. B) Statistics has shown that text message business has proliferated over the past three years.
C) U.S’s S.M.S business in mid-2004 is four times larger than in mid-2002.
D) One of the punishment parents give to carelessly use of texting is kids may lose cell phone privileges.
15. The word “rage” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to . A) anger B) fashion C) trend D) phenomenon Passage Two
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.
More than 100 colleges in Beijing enrolled fewer than 40,000 students in total this year, 10,000 less than last year, according to the Beijing Star Daily. In 2002, they attracted 80,000 students in total.
The head of a private college in the capital told the newspaper that the cost of educating a student at one of these establishments was about 30,000 yuan a year. He said a college needed to enrol 2,000 students a year to make ends meet. But in Beijing, they had enrolled fewer than 400 on average this year.
“Some private colleges will go bankrupt in the coming years if the number of enrolments continues to drop,” the head was quoted as saying.
Wei Honglin , head of the Beijing Education Consulting and Complaint Centre, said private colleges had suffered huge losses during the SARs outbreak last year.
Education experts said private colleges were becoming less attractive to students because of rising unemployment among graduates. They said high school graduates, especially those from less-developed areas, were reluctant to pay money and spend years on private college education when there was no guarantee of a job.
For many private college students, graduation is often a guarantee of unemployment because they are less popular with employers than graduates from well-known public colleges and universities.
An expansion of public colleges and universities since 1999 has also made it difficult for private colleges to survive. There are more than 1,300 privately run colleges across the country and nearly all are struggling to attract enough interest to keep running. To attract more students, more than 1 billion yuan was spent on publicising private colleges last year. ―For every student enrolled, the private colleges on average spent 3,000 yuan on publicity,‖ Mr Wei said.
16. What may be one of the results if a private college fails to enroll 2,000 students a year?
A) Students will leave to find another one.
B) The college will have to pay a certain penalty to the government. C) The college will have to shut down because of bankrupt. D) President of the college will be put in jail.
17. Why are students from less-developed areas reluctant to go to private colleges? A) Fees of private colleges are too high for students from those areas.
B) It is more difficult for them to enroll private colleges. C) Private colleges have a not so good repute.
D) After graduation from private colleges, the chance of getting a job is slimmer than from public colleges and universities.
18. What has been done in private colleges in order to survive?
A) Private colleges has gradually decrease their tuition in order to attract students from less-developed areas.
B) Private colleges has tried to use advertisements to promote themselves. C) An expansion of private colleges has been undertaking. D) Private colleges now employ more experienced teachers.
19. Based on the passage, what can be one of the reasons to cause losses to private colleges last year?
A) The outbreak of SARs.
B) The expansion of public colleges and universities. C) The careless operation of the colleges. D) The quality of the colleges’ faculty.
20. Which is the following statement is false on the grounds of the facts in the text? A) Nearly all the private colleges are struggling to survive throughout the country. B) For every student enrolled, 3,000 yuan a year is spent on all kinds of promotion on average.
C) Private colleges usually guarantee of a much better job than universities. D) Private colleges in Beijing enrolled about 50,000 students last year. Passage Three
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
In Elizabethan England, there were laws to prevent members of the rabble from dressing above their station. This was never really effective, but to understand how truly futile it is these days for the upper classes to try keeping the masses in their sartorial place, you need to know what a chav is. ―Chav‖ — the champion buzzword of 2004 in Britain, according to one language maven there — refers to something between a subculture and a social class. The unofficial definition is a clueless suburbanite with appalling taste and a tendency toward track suits and loud jewelry. In any case, there’s one aspect of chavness that almost every description mentions right away: Chavs love Burberry. The recognizable plaid pattern of Burberry, the venerable English luxury brand, has long since come to serve as a status signifier. Presumably it is status that chavs are looking for when they snap up anything and everything emblazoned with the plaid. The most popular element of the chav uniform is the Burberry plaid cap.
Stacey Cartwright, a Burberry executive, argues that this chav business is just a trivial tabloid story. The international brand continues to thrive in chav-free North America and Asia, she says. Responding to reports that Burberry discontinued one of its plaid caps in the U.K., she says that the ―small‖ British market was slow anyway. ―The chav issue won’t have helped, but it’s on top of what was already quite a sluggish market,‖ she says. Besides, she continues, ―the caps that the so-called chavs wear are actually counterfeit products; they’re not our products.‖ Burberry still offers, for example, a $200 cashmere plaid cap in Britain. ―That’s out of the price range of most of these individuals,‖ Cartwright says.
21. The best title of this article may be .
A) Burberry’s influence upon the chav business B) The good, the plaid and the ugly C) The definition of chavness
D) The laws to prevent members of the rabble from dressing above their station 22. From the text, we can infer that the most significant sign of Burberry is . A) plaid pattern B) paisley pattern C) checked pattern D) striped pattern 23. What’s Stacey Cartwright’s attitude towards the chav business? A) She thinks Burberry will thrive in chav-free areas.
B) She believes the chav business is of no great influence to Burberry. C) She thinks the chavness business will soon be out of date.
D) She believes the chavness is the business of counterfeit products. 24. What can we infer from the passage?
A) People always wear the proper garment to their social positions in the Elizabethan England.
B) Track suits and loud jewelry always appeal to clueless suburbanite.
C) Production of all sorts of plaid caps is shut down now, according to a Burberry executive.
D) The chav issue has little effect on Burberry’s market in and outside England. 25. Which is the following statement is true according to the text?
A) Burberry is a local English brand and can be seen only in England. B) Chav usually wear a special kind of uniform with a plaid cap. C) Chavs are people of fancy taste.
D) What the so-called chavs wear now are not real products of Burberry. Passage Four
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Each day, 50,000 shiny, fire-engine-red apples work their way through a sprawling factory in Swedesboro, N.J. Inside, 26 machines wash them, core them, peel them, seed them, slice them and chill them. At the end of the line, they are deposited into little green bags featuring a jogging Ronald McDonald.
From there, the bags make their way in refrigerated trucks to thousands of McDonald’s restaurants up and down the Eastern Seaboard. No more than 14 days after leaving the plant, the fruit will take the place of French fries in some child’s Happy Meal.
The apple slices, called Apple Dippers, are a symbol of how McDonald’s is trying to offer healthier food to its customers — and to answer the many critics who contend that most of its menu is of poor nutritional quality.
It remains to be seen whether these new offerings will assuage the concerns of public health officials and other critics of McDonald’s highly processed fat — and calorie — laden sandwiches, drinks and fries. So far, they have not — at least not entirely. But this much is already clear: Just as its staple burger-and-fries meals have made McDonald’s the largest single buyer of beef and potatoes in the country, its new focus on fresh fruits and vegetables is making the company a major player in the $80 billion American produce industry.
The potential impact goes beyond dollars and cents. Some people believe that McDonald’s could influence not only the volume, variety and prices of fruit and produce in the nation but also how they are grown.
26. According to the text, what will be found in some children’s Happy Meal in stead of French fries?
A) apple pies B) hamburger C) apple dippers D) apple flavor French
27. Why is McDonald using fruit production to take the place of traditional French fries?
A) Price of potato is increasing.
B) Apple are adored by more people.
C) McDonald wants to make their food diversified.
D) Fruit production, for instant, apple is of higher nutrition. 28. What can we infer from the text?
A) People can now feel relieved about the nutrition in McDonald’s food. B) We can no longer find French fries in children’s Happy Meal. C) Fries, drinks and sandwiches are regarded as fat-and-calories laden. D) McDonald spend $80 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables. 29. Which of the following statement is true according to the text?
A) Health officials and other critics’ attitude towards McDonald’s food has changed magnificently.
B) Each year, McDonald consumes the largest amount of potatoes and beef throughout the U.S.
C) Rising price of fruits is the only aspect of McDonald’s action.
D) Carefully chosen fire-engine-red apples are made into McDonald food after 14 days leaving the plant.
30. Why could McDonald influence the grow of the fruits?
A) Because McDonald will supervise the process of fruits growing.
B) Because more high-quality fruits are needed to make nutritional McDonald food. C) Because McDonald is going to run a orchard itself.
D) Because how the fruits are grown matters the cost of McDonald food. Part III Vocabulary (20 minutes)
Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Choose the ONE answer that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre. 31. He read the paper several times but he still _______ some printer’s errors. A) overlooked B) ignored C) noticed D) outlined
32. You have greatly _______us. What you have done is not what you told us about several weeks ago.
A) disappointed B) deserted C) clarified D) opposed
33. The financial support is decided not only according to your GRE score, but also according to your _______ in college.
A) performance B) policy C) smart D) statement
34. As a commander, you should not _______ the soldiers to unnecessary danger. A) express B) explode C) exploit D) expose
35. Although in great danger, the wounded still did not want to _______ from the front. A) feedback B) backward C) withdraw D) departure
36. In the class the teacher asked the students to _______ their bad habits.
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