Section C

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear three passages of lectures or talks followed by three or four questions. The recordings will be played only once. After you hear a question,you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.

　　Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　16. A) They have small roots. B) They grow white flowers.

　　C) They taste like apples. D) They come from Central Africa.

　　17. A) They turned from white to purple in color.

　　B) They became popular on the world market.

　　C) They became an important food for humans.

　　D) They began to look like modern-day carrots.

　　18. A) They were found quite nutritious.

　　B) There were serious food shortages.

　　C) People discovered their medicinal value.

　　D) Farm machines helped lower their prices.

　　Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　19. A) She could update her family any time she liked.

　　B) She could call up her family whenever she liked

　　C) She could locate her friends wherever they were.

　　D) She could download as many pictures as she liked.

　　20. A) She liked to inform her friends about her success.

　　B) She enjoyed reading her friends’ status updates.

　　C) She felt quite popular among them.

　　D) She felt she was a teenager again.

　　21. A) She could barely respond to all her 500 Facebook friends.

　　B) She spent more time updating her friends than her family.

　　C) She could barely balance Facebook updates and her work.

　　D) She didn’t seem to be doing as well as her Facebook friends.

　　Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　22. A) They have strong muscles.

　　B) They live a longer life than horses.

　　C) They eat much less in winter.

　　D) They can work longer than donkeys.

　　23. A) It was a pet of a Spanish king.

　　B) It was bought by George Washington.

　　C) It was brought over from Spain.

　　D) It was donated by a U.S. Ambassador.

　　24. A) They met and exchanged ideas on animal breeding.

　　B) They participated in a mule-driving competition.

　　C) They showed and traded animals in the market.

　　D) They fed mules with the best food they could find.

　　25. A) The wider use of horses. B) The arrival of tractors.

　　C) A shrinking animal trade. D) A growing donkey population.

　　Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 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 the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

　　Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.

　　America’s Internet is fester than ever before, but people still complain about their Internet being too slow.

　　New York’s Attorney General’s office (26)_______ an investigation in the fall into whether or not Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner are delivering broadband that’s as fast as the providers (27)_______ it is. Earlier this month, the office asked for the public’s help to measure their speed results, saying consumers (28)_______ to get the speeds they were promised. “Too many of us may be paying for one thing, and getting another，” the Attorney General said.

　　If the investigation uncovers anything, it wouldn’t be the first time a telecom provider got into (29)_______ over the broadband speeds it promised and delivered customers. Back in June, the Federal Communications Commission fined AT& T $ 100 million over (30)_______ that the carrier secretly reduced wireless speeds after customers consumed a certain amount of (31)_______ .

　　Even when they stay on the right side of the law, Internet providers arouse customers’ anger over bandwidth speed and cost. Just this week, an investigation found that media and telecom giant Comcast is

　　the most (32)_______ provider. Over 10 months, Comcast received nearly 12,000 customer complaints, many (33)_______ to its monthly data cap and overage (超过额度的)charges.

　　Some Americans are getting so (34)_______ with Internet providers they’re just giving up. A recent

　　study found that the number of Americans with high-speed Internet at home today (35)_______ fell during the last two years, and 15% of people now consider themselves to be “cord-cutters.”

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　Section B

　　Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

　　From Accountant to Yogi: Making a Radical Career Change

　　[A] At some point, almost all of us will experience a period of radical professional change. Some of us will seek it out; for others it will feel like an unwelcome intrusion into otherwise stable careers. Either way, we have choices about how we respond to it when it comes.

　　[B] We recently caught up with yoga entrepreneur Leah Zaccaria, who put herself through the fire of change to completely reinvent herself. In her search to live a life of purpose, Leah left her high-paying accounting job, her husband, and her home, hi the process, she built a radically new life and career. Since then, she has founded two yoga studios, met a new life partner, and formed a new community of people. Even if your personal reinvention is less drastic, we think there are lessons from her experience that apply.

　　[C] Where do the seeds of change come from? the Native American Indians have a saying: “Pay attention to the whispers so you won’t have to hear the screams.” Often the best ideas for big changes come from unexpected places — it’s just a matter of tuning in. Great leaders recognize the weak signals or slight signs that point to big changes to come. Leah reflects on a time she listened to the whispers: “About the time my daughter was five years old. I started having a sense that ‘this isn’t right.”’ She then realized that her life no longer matched her vision for it.

　　[D] Up until that point, Leah had followed traditional measures of success. After graduating with a degree in business and accounting, she joined a public accounting firm, married, bought a house, put lots of stuff in it, and had a baby. “I did what everybody else thought looked successful,” she says. Leah easily could have fallen into a trap of feeling content; instead, her energy sparked a period of experimentation and renewal.

　　[E] Feeling the need to change, Leah started playing with future possibilities by exploring her interests and developing new capabilities. First trying physical exercise and dieting, she lost some weight and discovered an inner strength. “1 felt powerful because 1 broke through my own limitations,” she recalls.

　　[F] However, it was another interest that led Leah to radically reinvent herself. “I remember sitting on a bench with my aunt at a yoga studio,’’ she said, having a moment of clarity right then and there: Yoga is saving my life. Yoga is waking me up. I’m not happy and I want to change and I’m done with this.” In that moment of clarity Leah made an important leap,conquering her inner resistance to change and making a firm commitment to take bigger steps.

　　[G] Creating the future you want is a lot easier if you are ready to exploit the opportunities that come your way. When Leah made the commitment to change, she primed herself to new opportunities she may otherwise have overlooked. She recalls:

　　[H] One day a man I worked with, Ryan, who had his office next to mine, said, “Leah, let’s go look at this space on Queen Anne.” He knew my love for yoga and had seen a space close to where he lived that he thought might be good to serve as a yoga studio. As soon as I saw the location, I knew this was it. Of course I was scared, yet I had this strong sense of “I have to do this.” Only a few months later Leah opened her first yoga studio, but success was not instant.

　　[I] Creating the future takes time. That’s why leaders continue to manage the present while building toward the big changes of the future. When it’s time to make the leap, they take action and immediately drop what’s no longer serving their purpose. Initially Leah stayed with her accounting job while starting up the yoga studio to make it all work.

　　[J] Soon after, she knew she had to make a bold move to fully commit to her new future. Within two years, Leah shed the safety of her accounting job and made the switch complete. Such drastic change is not easy.

　　[K] Steering through change and facing obstacles brings us face to face with our fears. Leah reflects on one incident that triggered her fears, when her investors threatened to shut her down: “I was probably up against the most fear I’ve ever had，” she says. “I had spent two years cultivating this community, and it had become successful very fast, but within six months I was facing the prospect of losing it all.”

　　[L] She connected with her sense of purpose and dug deep, cultivating a tremendous sense of strength. “I was feeling so intentional and strong that I wasn’t going to let fear just take over. I was thinking, ‘OK, guys, if you want to try to shut me down, shut me down.’And I knew it was a negotiation scheme, so I was able to say to myself, ‘This is not real.’” By naming her fears and facing them head-on, Leah gained confidence. For most of us, letting go of the safety and security of the past gives us great fear. Calling out our fears explicitly, as Leah did,can help us act decisively.

　　[M] The cycle of renewal never ends. Leah’s growth spurred her to open her second studio— and it wasn’t for the money.

　　[N] I have no desire to make millions of dollars. It’s not about that; it’s about growth for me. Honestly, I didn’t need to open a second studio. I was making as much money as I was as an accountant. But I know if you don’t grow, you stand still, and that doesn’t work for me.

　　[O] Consider the current moment in your own life, your team or your organization. Where are you in the cycle of renewal: Are you actively preserving the present, or selectively forgetting the past, or boldly creating the future? What advice would Leah give you to move you ahead on your journey? Once we’re on the path of growth, we can continually move through the seasons of transformation and renewal.