单项选择题
1、Questions are based on the following passage．
A new study, published in the international scientific journal Nature, revealed thatan estimated half a million cubic kilometers of low-salinity water are buried beneath theseabed on continental shelves around the world.
"The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we'veextracted from the Earth's sub-surface in the past century since 1900," says lead authorDr. Vincent Post of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT)and the School of the Environment at Flinders University.
Dr. Post said that while scientists knew of freshwater under the seafloor, theythought it only occurred under rare and specific conditions.
These reserves were formed over the past hundreds of thousands of years when onaverage the sea level was much lower than it is today, and when the coastline was furtherout, Dr. Post explains.
"So when it rained, the water would infiltrate into the ground and fill up the watertable in areas that are nowadays under the sea.
"It happened all around the world, and when the sea level rose when ice caps startedmelting some 20,000 years ago, these areas were covered by the ocean.
"These aquifers ( 含水层 ) protected from seawater by layers of clay and sedimentthat sit on top of them."
The aquifers are similar to the ones below land, which much of the world relies onfor drinking water, and their salinity is low enough for them to be turned into potablewater, Dr. Post says.
"There are two ways to access this water--build a platform out at sea and drill intothe seabed, or drill from the mainland or islands close to the aquifers.
"Freshwater on our planet is increasingly under stress and strain so the discoveryof significant new stores off the coast is very exciting. It means that more options can beconsidered to help reduce the impact of droughts and continental water shortages."
But while nations may now have new reserves of freshwater offshore, Dr. Postsays they will need to take care in how they manage the seabed: "For example, wherelow-salinity groundwater below the sea is likely to exist, we should take care not tocontaminate it.
Dr. Post also warns that these water reserves are non-renewable: "We should usethem carefully---once gone, they won't be refilled until the sea level drops again."
What did scientists think of new water reserves under the sea?
A．They are the same as seawater, which is salty.
B．They can be found anywhere in the ocean.
C．They can be only found in unusual and particular conditions.
D．They are not able to be turned into potable water.

2、Questions are based on the following passage．
The more choices people have, the riskier the decisions they make, according toa new study which sheds light on how we behave when faced with large amounts ofinformation.
Researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Lugano set up agambling game in which they analysed how decision-making is affected when people arefaced with a large number of potential gambles. They found that a bias in the way peoplegather information leads them to take more risks when they choose a gamble from a largeset of options, a phenomenon which researchers have labelled "search-amplified risk".
Dr. Thomas Hills of the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick said,"The problem is with the information search strategies people use when faced with a largenumber of options."
For the study,64 participants took part in a game where they had to choose one boxout of a varying number of boxes presented on a computer screen. Each box contained adifferent sum of money--for example ￡1 or ￡ 5--and each box had a certain probabilityof paying out--for example,1 out of 10,1 out of 3, or every time. Participants were ableto "sample" each box by opening it as many times as they liked to determine the payoutamount and to try to deduce the probability of a payout. Once they were satisfied with theinformation they had gathered, they committed to their final choice by choosing a singlebox. The game consisted of five turns, with either an increasing or decreasing number ofboxes per turn.
The researchers found that both the number of boxes per turn and whether thenumber of boxes was increasing or decreasing affected the quality of decision-makingamong the participants. With a higher number of boxes, people made a higher total numberof samples. However, the increase in sampling was not in proportion to the increase in boxnumbers.
These results show that with large choice sets, people gathered a broad range ofinformation on the value of the potential sum they could win, so were aware that therewere boxes with higher payout values. However they were not delving ( 探究 ) deeplyinto that information, which in this context meant they were not fully investigating theprobability of the payout of the higher-value boxes. The researchers also found differencesin decision-making between the "many-to-few group"--those who started with a largenumber of choices which were then decreased--and the "few-to-many group" where the orderwas reversed. The study showed that people who started with smaller choice sets weremore likely than the other group to gather more information across all choice set sizes.
What does "search-amplified risk" mean according to the researchers?
A．People do not know how to make choices when faced with a large set of options.
B．People make random decisions when faced with too much choice.
C．People make riskier decisions when faced with a large set of options.
D．People make wise choices when faced with too much choice.

3、听音频，回答下列题

A．To purchase his plane ticket.
B．To pick up a passport application form.
C．To change his plane ticket.
D．To arrange for his accommodations in Europe.


4、Electricity from Wind
A) Since 1980, the use of wind to produce electricity has been growing rapidly．In 1994 there were nearly 20,000 wind turbines worldwide, most grouped in clusters called wind farms that collectively produced 3,000 megawatts of electricity．Most were in Denmark ( which got 3 percent of its electricity from wind turbines) and California (where 17,000 machines produced 1 percent of the state's electricity, enough to meet the residential needs of a city as large as San Francisco)．In principle, all the power needs of  the United States could be provided by exploiting the wind potential of just three states--North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas.
B)Large wind farms can be built in six months to a year and then easily expanded as needed．With a moderate to fairly high net energy yield, these systems emit no heat-trapping carbon dioxide or other air pollutants and need no water for cooling; manufacturing them produces little water pollution．The land under wind turbines can be used for grazing cattle and other purposes, and leasing land for wind turbines
can provide extra income for farmers and ranchers.
C) Wind power has a significant cost advantage over nuclear power and has become competitive with coalfired power plants in many places．With new technological advances and mass production, projected cost declines should make wind power one of the world's cheapest ways to produce electricity．In the long run, electricity from large wind farms in remote areas might be used to make hydrogen gas from water during periods when there is less than peak demand for electricity．The hydrogen gas could then be fed into a storage system and used to generate electricity when additional or backup power is needed.
D) Wind power is most economical in areas with steady winds．In areas where the wind dies down, backup electricity from a utility company or from an energy storage system becomes necessary．Backup power could also be provided by linking wind farms with a solar cell, with conventional or pumped-storage hydropower, or with efficient natural-gas-burning turbines．Some drawbacks to wind farms include visual pollution and noise, although these can be overcome by improving their design and locating them in isolated areas.
E ) Large wind farms might also interfere with the flight patterns of migratory birds in certain areas, and they have killed large birds of prey (especially hawks, falcons, and eagles) that prefer to hunt along the same ridge lines that are ideal for wind turbines．The killing of birds of prey by wind turbines has pitted environmentalists who champion wildlife protection against environmentalists who promote renewable wind energy．Researchers are evaluating how serious this problem is and hope to find ways to eliminate or sharply reduce this problem．Some analysts also contend that the number of birds killed by wind turbines is dwarfed by birds killed by other human-related sources and by the potential loss of entire bird species from possible global warming．Recorded deaths of birds of prey and other birds in wind farms in
the United States currently amount to no more than 300 per year．By contrast, in the United States an estimated 97 million birds are killed each year when they collide with buildings made of plate glass,57 million are killed on highways each year; at least 3.8 million die annually from pollution and poisoning ; and millions of birds are electrocuted each year by transmission and distribution lines carrying power produced by nuclear and coal power plants.
F) The technology is in place for a major expansion of wind power worldwide．Wind power is a virtually unlimited source of energy at favorable sites, and even excluding environmentally sensitive areas, the global potential of wind power is much higher than the current world electricity use．In theory, Argentina,Canada, Chile, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom could use wind to meet all of their energy needs．Wind power experts project that by the middle of the twenty-first century wind power could supply more than 10 percent of the world's electricity and 10--25 percent of the electricity used in the United States.
G) Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though advances in the science were not made until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries．Practical applications for electricity however remained few, and it would not be until the late nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use．The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry and society．Electricity's extraordinary versatility as a means of providing energy means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport, heating, hghting, communications, and
computation．Electrical power is the backbone of modem industrial society.
H) The word electricity is from the New Latin electricus, "amber-like", coined in the year 1600 from the Greek ηλεκτρον (electron) meaning amber, because electrical effects were produced classically by
rubbing amber.
I) Long before any knowledge of electricity existed people were aware of shocks from electric fish．Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BC referred to these fish as the "Thunderer of the Nile", and described them as the "protectors" of all other fish.
J) Electric fish were again reported millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists and physicians．Several ancient writers, such as Pliny the Elder and Scribonius Largus, attested to the numbing effect of electric shocks delivered by catfish and torpedo rays, and knew that such shocks could travel along conducting objects．Patients suffering from ailments such as gout or headache were directed
to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them.
K) Possibly the earliest and nearest approach to the discovery of the identity of lightning, and electricity from any other source, is to be attributed to the Arabs, who before the 15th century had the Arabic word for lightning (raaD．applied to the electric ray.
L) Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers.
M) Thales of Miletos made a series of observations on static electricity around 600 BC, from which he believed that friction rendered amber magnetic, in contrast to minerals such as magnetite, which needed no rubbing.
N) Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity.
O) According to a controversial theory, the Parthians may have had knowledge of electroplating, based on the 1936 discovery of the Baghdad Battery, which resembles a galvanic cell, though it is uncertain whether the artifact was electrical in nature.
In 1994 there were nearly 20,000 wind turbines worldwide, most grouped in clusters called wind farms that collectively produced 3,000 megawatts of electricity.


简答题
5、少林功夫历史悠久，影响深远，是中国传统武术(martial art)的一个重要组成部分。少林功夫受益于自然界的智慧。几千年前，少林寺的和尚(monk)把对野生动物的观察融入锻炼的套路，并以此强身健体。这种从动物中得到启示的艺术形式形成了“功夫”。如今，少室山(Shaoshi Mountain)——少林功夫的起源地——仍保留着起初的练武场，全国各地的学生都来此学习这门源于自然的传统知识。如今的重点也许更倾向于强健体魄而不是功夫所蕴含的哲学内涵，但这仍是对功夫意义重大的复兴(re-awakening)。

6、Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the remark "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." You can cite examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

7、 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below.  You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then discuss how to get successful. You should give sound arguments to support your views and write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.




8、聘礼（bride price）是中国传统习俗的一部分，这一习俗在整个中国都很普遍。但是近几年来其标准不断上升，致使大多数家庭都很难达到。高额聘礼常常 “抢劫”了新郎父母的毕生积蓄，甚至引起家庭纠纷。此外，因为盲目攀比，许多新婚夫妇被迫举行奢侈的婚礼，在这个过程中，大量债务的累积可能使他们的新婚生活变得艰辛，至少在初阶段是这样。老一辈节捡的婚礼虽然简简单单，但也幸福美满，没有给他们婚后的生活带来任何负担。


9、中国人喜欢在一起吃饭，这个传统可以追溯到很久以前。这反映出中国人喜欢团圆、不愿分离的观念——圆桌、圆盘、圆碗都象征着团圆和美满。盘子通常放在桌子的中央，这样坐在桌子面前的所有人都可以吃得到。一锅热汤尤其可以增加和谐、团圆的气氛。朋友们也喜欢在一起吃饭、生活。近一位美国汉学家（sinologist）的著作认为，中国人的集体观念就是从一同吃饭发展而来的。


10、Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay explaining why it is unwise to jump to conclusions upon seeing or hearing something. You can give examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.