2011 National English Contest for College students
(Level C-Preliminary)
Part Two Vocabulary and Structure (15 marks )
There are 15 incomplete sentences in this section. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.
31. After four days of talks, we are glad to announce that the union and management have reached an______. The agreement is fair and benefits both sides.
A. accord B. accomplishment C. identity D. undertaking 32. As the clerk______prepared my milk shake, I wondered how long she had been working there ,mindlessly making ice cream treats in a set order of steps.
A. logically B. methodically C. graphically D. synthetically
33. As a boy he wanted to be a fireman. As a high school student, he thought he'd like to become a teacher. Now he______to be nothing more than a janitor.
A. Assumes B. Prescribes C. Aspires D. Presumes
34. Regardless of what caused it, I an grateful that have finally reached a point in my life_______I can appreciate my strengths, accept my weaknesses and try to be comfortable with everything in between. A. Why B. Where C. Which D. What
35. ______information provided by members of the public, the police would have a much move difficult job.
A. Supposing B. Provided the C. If it were not for D. On
condition that
36. Peter Brown was a painstaking writer;______, he once spent half a day on the composition of a single sentence.
A. On the other hand B. Nevertheless C. Moreover D. For example 37.----What an I going to do about a present for Carol ----You______some flowers.
A. Might have sent her B. Must have sent her C. Could send her D. Would send her
38. Without the air holding in some of the sun's heat, the earth______cold at night, too cold for us to live on.
A. Will be freezing B. Would be freezing C. An be frozen D. Would be frozen
39. The students in our university each______an English dictionary. That is to say, each of the students in our university______an English dictionary.
A. Have; has B. Have; have C. Has; have D. Has; has 40. Here's your kitchen. I hope you enjoy cooking here. Is there______else that you need
A. Something B. Anything C. Nothing D. Everything 41. David______his business partner over plans to reduce the workforce. A. Came down to B. Broke down to C. Fell out with D. Went along with
42. ______is this piece of equipment to be removed from the building. A. On no account B. Absolutely C. Scarcely D. Not at all 43. Helen' s parents were______that she was still on the job., but she had resigned.
A. In doubt B. Of the opinion C. Under the impression D.
With suspicion
44.----I don't think I will ever, in my life, win a lottery of five million dollars.
----Well, ______. Anything can happen.
A. You made it B. You're kidding C. What you say D. You can never tell
45.-----How did you find the concert in the Grand Theatre last night -----______ but the conductor was perfect.
A. I couldn't agree more B. I didn't think much of it C. I was crazy about it D. I really liked it
Part Three Cloze(15 marks )
I have been reading a lot on my iPad recently, and I have some (46)_____ (complain) not about the iPad itself but about the state of digital reading generally. Reading is a subtle thing, and its subtleties are artifacts of a venerable medium: words printed in ink on paper. Glass and pixels aren't the same.
When I read a physical book, I don't have to look anywhere else to find out how much I've read. The iPad e---reader, iBooks tries to create the (47) illu_____ of a physical book. The pages seem to turn, and I can the edges of those that remain, but it's fake. There are always exactly six unturned pages, no matter (48)_____ I am in the book.
Also, there is a larger problem. Books in their digital format look vastly less \or less genuine than real books. You can vary their font and type size, but this only makes them (49)_____(resemble)
word---processed---no matter how (50)_____(wretch) or wonderful they are---will never look as good as Robert Hass's poems in the print edition of The Apple Trees at Olema. But your poems can look almost exactly as ugly---as \---as the Kindle version of that collection. All the e---book I've read have been ugly---books by Chang---rae Lee, Alvin Kernan, and Stieg Larsson---though the texts have been wonderful. I didn't grow up reading texts. I grew up reading books, and this(51)_____(differ) is important.
When it comes to digital editions, the(52)_____(assume) seems to be that all books(53)are_____(create) equal. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In the mass migration from print to digital, we're seeing a profusion of digital books---many of them out of copyright---that look new and even \but which may well have been supplanted by more accurate editions and better translations. We need a digital readers' guide---a place where readers can find(54)_____ whether the book they're about to download is the best available edition.
(55)Fi_____, two related problems. I already have a personal library, but most of the books I've read have come from(56)_____(lend) libraries. Barnes & Noble has released an e---reader that allows short---term (57) _____(borrow) of some books. The entire idea behind Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iBooks assumes that you cannot read a book unless you own it first and that only you can read it unless you want to give your reading device to someone else.
This goes against the social value of reading, the collective knowledge and (58)_____(collaborate) discourse that comes from access to (59)_____or our culture in general.
Part Four Reading Comprehension (40 marks). Section A (10 marks ).
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Not keen on reading Do you have trouble finding a novel that arouses your interest Why not follow Ammon Shea's example and start reading a dictionary
Mr Shea owns over 1,000 dictionaries and he reads them for fun. He recently spent a year reading all 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary contains more than 20,000 pages and over 59 million words.
As he read from A to Z, he noted down interesting words in a ledger. This includes words such as \meaning to make someone happy and \kept a diary about this experience, which has since become a best---selling book.
Why did he do this He claims it was fun. \dictionaries . They are far more interesting than people give then credit for,\
It appears that it was not his goal to sound more intelligent by using longer and more complex words. \words, but I'm opposed to using then for their own sake,\ In fact ,as a result of reading so many new words , Mr Shea often forgot everyday vocabulary. He wrote, \head was so full of words that I often had trouble forming simple sentences.\
Mr Shea is not alone in his love of reading Higgleton, a representative
全国大学生英语竞赛C类试题及答案
