Section B (18 marks)

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

Peter was a US Navy fighter pilot in Vietnam. On his 75th mission, his fighter was   36   and he was forced to eject（彈射出去）. The only thing between him and imminent（逼近的）death was his parachute（降落傘）that he prayed would open. The parachute did open and Peter made it down to the ground alive, but he was   37  alive and spent 6 years in a Vietnamese prison camp.

    One day, many years after returning to his homeland, Peter and his wife were sitting in a little restaurant in Kansas City   38   he noticed a guy who kept looking at him.

    Peter looked back but didn’t recognize him, but he kept catching this guy   39   him. Finally the guy stood up and walked over to Peter’s   40 and said, “You’re Peter.” Peter looked up at him and said, “Yes.” The guy said, “You’re a   41   pilot, part of that ‘Top Gun ”outfit. You launched from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, you parachuted into enemy territory and you spent six years as a   42   of war.”  

      43   surprised, Peter looked up at the guy and asked, “How in the world did you know all that?” The man laughed and said, “Because I   44   your parachute.”

    Peter was   45  . The man grabbed Peter’s hand and pumped his arm and said, “I guess it worked,” and walked off.

Think about this for yourself. How many times in life do you   46   the people who help you out the most? The people who come out of the far   47   of your life just when you need them the most and pack your parachutes for you?

36. A. hurt       B. spoiled      C. injured      D. destroyed

37. A. caught        B. held    C. taken    D. removed

38. A. while           B. as       C. when   D. once 

39. A. staring at     B. glaring at      C. glancing at   D. glimpsing at 

40. A. desk    B. table     C. house     D. restaurant 

41. A. helicopter      B. fighter      C. plane      D. warship 

42. A. friend     B. pilot      C. soldier      D. prisoner

43. A. Somewhat     B. Somewhere     C. Anyhow     D. Anyway 

44. A. picked      B. put     C. installed      D. packed

45. A. worthless     B. speechless     C. careless     D. priceless

46. A. walk     B. go     C. pass     D. wander 

47. A. grounds     B. camps  C. corners  D. fields

 

Section C (12 marks)

Directions: Complete the following passage by filling in each blank with one word that best fits the context.

 

Maria is the founder of a chain of coffee bars. She comes from Singapore, but later moved to London with her family. Her father, who was a factory manager, filled  48  with a belief in hard work. Maria studied political science at university.  49  leaving university, she became a teacher. When her father passed away, she went to New York for   50  break. Every morning she’d go to a coffee bar. When she got  51  to London, she realized that  52  was nothing like those coffee bars.  53  she decided to give up her job and do something about it. She opened her  54  coffee bar in the year 1995 and her success was quick. She opened another ten the following year. Now she is proud of her success and plans to open 80 more  55  the 85 she already has. Just think Maria is only 35 !

 

Part III  Reading Comprehension (30 marks)

     Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage

A

The oil from palms (棕櫚) has a wide variety of uses and is found in food, soaps and shampoos. An international team found a gene that made some of the trees produce more oil than others.

Dr Rajinder Singh, from government agency the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, said, “The oil palm has three fruit forms: a thick-shelled type —the Dura; those that don’t have any shell—the Pisifera; a third form produced as a cross between the thick shell and the one without the shell—the Tenera, which are more of the fleshy fruit to produce the oil,” and the researchers identified the gene producing this trait.  

While oil palm growers attempt to grow only the thin-shelled Tenera variety, up to 10% of the seeds can be contaminated (污染的), and turn out to be the other less oily plants. Prof. Martienssen, from the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, said, “We can now use that gene in genetic testing, which will allow growers as well as producers to know exactly what sort of tree they are planting before it produces fruit. It takes a long time for these trees to produce fruit, but by being able to predict exactly what sort of fruit that trees will produce, it will greatly assist growers.”

The researchers say this could offer a more sustainable form of agriculture. Prof. Martienssen said, “This finding gives us huge hope. We hope to maximize land usage and produce a lot more on the same amount of land, because we do not want to destroy the rain forest any more.”

However, the environmental group WWF-UK said that the global demand for oil palm was growing rapidly, making the expansion of plantations inevitable.

Adam Harrison, the organization’s food and agriculture policy officer, said, “In a sense it does not matter if a ‘good’ variety replaces forest or a ‘bad’ one, the wildlife and communities that need access to that land will suffer. So for palm oil to be sustainable, the process of allocating (分配) land needs to be controlled. There is an abundance of low-carbon, low-wildlife and conflict-free land available and there is no more need for forest areas to be changed.”

56. What can we infer from the passage?

   A. The plantation of oil palms has decreased in recent years.

   B. The Dura produces less oil than other two types of palm fruit.

   C. It takes less time to produce fruit, Pisifera, than other two types of fruit.

   D. The researchers are trying to produce more palms with the fruit, Tenera.

57. What difficulty are the oil palm growers faced with?

   A. The more oily palms easily died of bad weather.

   B. The more oily palms can change to the less oily ones.

   C. They don’t have enough land to grow oil palms.

   D. They are unable to predict exactly what sort of fruit the trees they are planting     will produce.   

58. According to his statement in Paragraph 4, Prof Martienssen thought they should   ______.

   A. expand the plantation of oil palms

   B. plant more other trees instead of oil palms         

   C. make full use of less land to plant oil palms

   D. only grow the more sustainable type of oil palms

59. The underlined word “inevitable” in the last but one paragraph means ______.

   A. unchangeable   B. improper    C. uncertain     D. impractical

60. Over which issue Adam Harrison showed his concern?

   A. The oil palm is not a good replacement of the forest.

   B. The palm oil the researchers are testing is unsustainable.

   C. There is not enough land for the plantation of oil palms.

   D. The plantation of oil palms will affect the native environment.

B

Salesman Ramesh lived in the southern part of India. He got his first assignment in the month of June, the start of the rainy season in the area. He was given a list of local laundry owners whom he had to approach and sell products to. He was scared and thought he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the task, but he accepted the challenge as he had no other choice.

    The next day he started approaching the laundry owners, and within 15 days he got a really nice response. Most of them purchased his products, but they borrowed money from Ramesh to buy the products. Everyone promised to pay him back within the next 15 days.

    During the last week of June a midst heavy showers, he started visiting the laundry owners to collect money. Upon visiting half of them, he realized he hadn’t collected a penny.

    After almost 14 days, on a bright sunny Monday morning, he started visiting the laundry owners once again. Suddenly, by noon Ramesh realized that he had collected the payments from almost 50% of the owners.

    He worked hard throughout the day, and by the end of the day he had completed 90% of his target for June and July. At last, he became the “star performer” for the months of June and July.

    Why did the laundry owners look at the sky and tell him to come the next day when Ramesh visited them? He went to a laundry owner and asked him the question. The owner said, “This is the month of the rainy season and we have to wash the clothes, dry them off and iron them before handing them over to customers. If the sun doesn’t shine, how can we dry our clothes and earn money to pay you back?” Ramesh then realized that it was his patience and endurance that kept him going and ultimately helped him achieve success.

    Like Ramesh, each one of us should realize that apart from being honest and hard-working, if we can keep our patience, we are inching up the ladder of success. 

61. What can we learn about Ramesh?

   A. He didn’t like the job of salesman.

   B. He was confident in his first task.

   C. His customers were mainly the local laundry owners.

   D. He accomplished his sales task perfectly within 10 days.

62. The laundry owners asked Ramesh to come later, because  ___________.

   A. they felt embarrassed about refusing Ramesh directly

   B. they didn’t want to pay Ramesh back at all

   C. they had to wait for the sun to come out to dry clothes

   D. they had to save up money to pay for the products they bought

63. Which of the following best describes Ramesh?

   A. Hard-working and patient.            B. Patient and generous.

   C. Generous and hard-working.          D. Confident and persuasive.

64. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

   A. June is the start of the rainy season in the southern part of India.

   B. To sell products, Ramesh helped his customers to wash clothes.   

   C. Ramesh became the “star performer” for the next three months.

   D. A minority of customers paid for the products using the money from Ramesh.

65. What does the author try to tell us?

   A. Plans are everything.

   B. Patience leads to success.

   C. Customers must come first.

   D. Success is one thing; luck is another.