Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blank, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
Development banks are international lending groups. They lend money to developing countries to help fuel economic growth and social (36) ________. They are not part of the World Bank, the International (37) ________ Fund or the United Nations. The money comes from member countries and borrowing on world markets.
Development banks provide long-term loans at market (38) ________. They provide even longer-term loans at below-market interest rates. These banks also provide technical (39) ________ and (40) ________.
There are four main ones. The oldest is the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. It began in 1959. President Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil had (41) ________ a bank to aid economic growth in the Americas. The (42) ________ of American States agreed. Today the bank is worth over 100,000 million dollars. It holds only 4 percent of that. The other money is (43) ________ by its members. (44) ________________________________________. 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean borrow from the bank.
The African Development Bank has its roots in an agreement signed in Sudan in 1963. It is based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (45) ________________________________________. The country with the most votes in the bank is Nigeria, followed as of July by the United States, Japan and Egypt.
The Asian Development Bank started in 1966. It is based in Manila, in the Philippines. There are 63 members, mostly in Asia. (46) ________________________________________.
Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage
A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you 47 the two to do something for your local 48 ?
It may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone you will be able to 49 it in the garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower.
50 , a biodegradable (生物可降解的)mobile phone was introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new type of phone will encourage 51 to recycle.
Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other 52 and can be hard or soft. and able to change shape. Overtime it can also break down into the soil without giving out any toxic 53 . British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed. When this new type of cover turns into waste, it 54 nitrates(硝酸盐). These feed the seed and help the flower grow.
Engineers have designed a small 55 window to hold the seed. They have made sure it only grows when the phone is thrown away.
"We've only put sunflower seeds into the covers so far. But we are working with plant 56 to find out which flowers would perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time," said one scientist.
[A] Recently
[B] consumers
[C] chemicals
[D] environment
[E] combine
[F] transparent
[G] buy
[H] companion [I] experts
[J] forms
[K] bury
[L] paper
[M] paper
[N] plastic
[O] Usually
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. 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 Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
It is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory. The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions, the basis for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory.
Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use. It not only includes "remembering" things like arithmetic or historical facts, but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves. Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain because he has sniffed (嗅出)something suspicious in the grain pile.
Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines. Computers, for example, contain devices for storing data for later use. It is interesting to compare the memory storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being. The instant access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100,000 "words"—string of alphabetic or numerical characters—ready for instant use. An average U.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000 words of English. However, this is but a fraction of the total amount of information that the teenager has stored. Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight.
The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings. A large part of a person's memory is in terms of words and combinations of words. But while language greatly expands the number and the king of things a person can remember, it also requires a huge memory capacity. It may well be this capacity that distinguishes humans, setting them apart from other animals.
57. Which of the following is TRUE about memory?
[A] It helps us perceive things happening around us every day.
[B] It is based on the decisions we made in the past.
[C] It is rooted in our past habits and skills.
[D] It connects our past experiences with the present.
58. According to the passage, memory is helpful in one's life in the following aspects EXCEPT that ________.
[A] it involves a change in one's behavior
[B] it keeps information for later use
[C] it warns people not to do things repeatedly
[D] it enables one to remember events that happened in the past
59. What is the author's view about computers and human beings in terms of intelligence?
[A] Computers have better memory than a child does.
[B] Computers are as intelligent as a teenager is.
[C] Computers can understand as many as 100,000 words.
[D] Human beings are far superior to computers.
60. What is the major characteristic of man's memory capacity according to the author?
[A] It can be expanded by language. [C] It may keep all the information in the past.
[B] It can remember all the combined words. [D] It may change what has been stored in it.
61. Human beings make themselves different from other animals by _______.
[A] having the ability to perceive danger
[B] having a far greater memory capacity
[C] having the ability to recognize faces and places on sight
[D] having the ability to draw on past experiences
Passage Two
Questions 62 to 66 are based in the following passage.
"Family" is of course an elastic word. But when British people say that their society is based on family life, they are thinking of "family" in its narrow, peculiarly European sense of mother, father and children living together alone in their own house as an economic and social unit. Thus, every British marriage indicates the beginning of a new and independent family— hence the tremendous importance of marriage in British life.
For both the man and the woman, marriage means leaving one's parents and starting one's own life. The man's first duty will then be to his wife, and the wife's to her husband. He will be entirely responsible for her financial support, and she for the running of the new home. Their children will be their common responsibility and theirs alone. Neither the wife's parents nor the husband's, nor their brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles, have any right to interfere with them—they are their own masters.
Readers of novels like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice will know that in former times marriage among wealthy families was arranged by the girl's parents, that is, it was the parents' duty to find a suitable husband for their daughter, preferably a rich one, and by skillful encouragement to lead him eventually to ask their permission to marry her. Until that time, the girl was protected and maintained in the parents' home, and the financial relief of getting rid of her could be seen in their giving the newly married pair a sum of money called a dowry(嫁妆). It is very different today. Most girls of today get a job when they leave school and become financially independent before their marriage. This has had two results: a girl chooses her own husband, and she gets no dowry.
62. What does the author mean by "'Family' is of course an elastic word"?
[A] Different families have different ways of life.
[B] Different definitions could be given to the word.
[C] Different nations have different families.
[D] Different times produce different families.
63. For an English family, the husband's duty is ________.
[A] supporting the family while the wife is financial
[B] defending the family while the wife is running the home
[C] financial while the wife is running the home
[D] independent while the wife is dependent
64. Everything is decided in a family ________.