It could not have been harder to leave one of the children behind when we moved. I know that parting with our dog was one of the most painful decisions to make. This is Zachary’s story.

     Ann and the children and I moved from our rural home in Virginia so that I could retrain for a new career. It meant leaving behind our best friend, Zachary, a six year old Black Lab. This was for his good; he would be miserably locked up in suburban Birmingham while we were away from home every day. We all agreed that he should remain free and explore the countryside. We found friends of friends, who would be glad to give him a new home. He trembled beside me as I drove him there. And I left him tearfully, watching him on his new front porch, disappearing in the distance of the rear view mirror(后视镜). I tried to convince myself that old Zach did not really care who cared for him. He would be fine and we would soon outgrow our mutual loss.

     A year tater, in our new home in a Birmingham suburb, we got a call from the people who bought our farmhouse. Ann took the phone; the color drained from her face as the kids and I watched the conversation unfold. Our callers told Ann. “There’s a strange dog showed up here a couple days ago. He’s right thin and his paws don’t look so good. He just seems sort of lost and confused. The neighbors down the road say they think he’s your old dog.”

     “It’s Zachary and he found his way home. He’s looking for us. Fred, you have to go get him.” Ann said through tears. She was right. We had to go. But bringing Zachary there to Birmingham made no more sense than it would have a year earlier. Even so, the next day, my daughter and I drove ten hours to our old farmhouse.

21. The author’s family decided to leave Virginia because         .

A. they were already tired of rural life     B. they wanted to leave children behind     

C. the author wanted to find a new job         D. they had more friends elsewhere

22. Why was Zachary left behind when the family moved?

A. Zachary was no longer cared for by the family.  B. Moving along would do Zachary no good.

C. Zachary was unwilling to leave.              D. Some friends wanted to keep Zachary                      

23. It can be inferred from the passage that          .

    A. the author regretted having left Zachary behind

    B. the author thought it made more sense to bring him back now

    C. Zachary got lost on her way to finding them in Birmingham

    D. Zachary was badly treated in the friends’ family

24. Which of the following best describes the story?

    A. Distance makes two hearts grow closer.

    B. Love me, love my dog.

    C. Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future.

D. Love will take you home.

Have you ever been to the world’s smallest bookstore?

The World’s Smallest Bookstore，whose official name is just these three words，sits quietly about 100 miles northeast of Toronto．

The bookstore is about 10 feet by 10 feet，so it is easy to imagine how tiny it really is．The bookstore is open 24 hours a day．Inside the bookstore are various books，especially literary books and classic authors’ works．So if you are looking for something less popular，you may get a bit disappointed there．

Another special feature of this bookstore is that each book only costs three dollars．All the expenses are paid on the honor system，which means buyers should make a note of what they’ve bought and leave their money by themselves．So the tools of the trade in this bookstore are quite simple: pens，papers，light bulbs and a label-maker．

In order to catch passers-by’s attention，the billboards(广告牌）of the bookstore are several times bigger than the store itself．With these large eye-catchers，many people are willing to stop by and have a visit．

25．What’s the passage mainly about?

A．The world’s smallest bookstore．     B．A strange way of selling books．

C．The popular books nowadays．       D．The popular bookstores in the world．

26．Which of the following books might you most probably get in the store?

A．Books on popular science．             B．Literary books．

C．The year book of a university． D．Books on economic control．

27．How could you buy a book from the store?

A．The salesman will help you find the book．  

B．The salesman will get the money for the book．

C．Choose the book(s）and leave the money there．

D．Pay on the net and then get the book(s）in the store．

A study of English learning problems was carried out among a total of 106 foreign students. It shows that most students considered understanding spoken English to be their biggest problem on arrival. This was followed by speaking. Writing increased as a problem as students discovered difficulties in writing papers that they were now expected to hand in. Reading remained as a significant problem.

    The information gained helped us in determining where special attention should be paid in our course. Although many students have chosen to join the course with a reasonable motivation, we considered it important to note what seemed to encourage interest. Nearly all the students have experienced some kind of grammar-based English teaching in their own country. To use the same method would be self-defeating because it might reduce motivation, especially if it has failed in the past. Therefore a different method may help because it is different.

    Variety of activity was also seen as a way of maintaining or increasing motivation. Several years ago we had one timetable that operated throughout, but we soon found that both the students and the teachers lost interest by about halfway through the ten weeks. This led us to a major re-think, so finally we brought it into line with the expressed language needs of the students.

28. What is the text mainly about?

A. Foreign students have more problems.  

B. Teaching should meet students’ needs.

C. English learning problems should be studied again.

D. There are many ways to improve English.

29. Writing became a bigger problem when foreign students________.

A. became less interested in reading         B. became better at speaking

C. had to write their papers            D. had fewer problems with listening

30. We may infer from the last two paragraphs that ________.

A. teaching content should be changed halfway

B. grammar-based teaching seems to be encouraging

C. English courses are necessary for foreign students

D. different teaching methods should be used

31. The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to “______”.

  A. re-think       B. timetable       C. motivation       D. activity

Education is a process which enables a student to think for himself and make his decisions in life. However, the present day Education system puts emphasis on rote-learning (死记硬背) and unhealthy competition. This often leads students to depression (抑郁症) at times. However, if a student is allowed to continue his own interests then their personalities would bloom and they would also be successful in their careers.

   There exists difference between market demands and the skills of India’s educated youth. For example, every year approximately 650, 000 engineering graduates pass, out of whom nearly two thirds need to be re-skilled, so that they can get jobs in the industry. The developed world requires knowledge workers and skilled professionals. By 2020, the developed world will have a shortage of 40 million working people, says a report.

   These figures show the shortage of skilled manpower in India in comparing to the jobs existing in the market. This mismatch occurs due to many reasons.

   A few of them are as follows:

   A. Low motivation among students to receive vocational (职业的) education.

   B. The inflexible minds of parents and educators in accepting vocational courses.

   C. Many vocational courses that are being offered have become out of date.

   D. There is poor linkage between institutions offering vocational courses and the private sector (行业). Students often find it difficult to secure proper employment immediately after completing their courses.

   In order to keep up with the market demands of India, students should be encouraged to take up vocational education. They should be allowed to study the subjects they like. Teachers and parents must become more open-minded about students’ career and life choices. There should be enough infrastructures (基础设施) to support vocational education. Educational institutes could link up with companies so that students can be employed soon after they complete their studies. These are a few ways in which the gap between vocational education and market demand for skilled manpower can be bridged.

32. In the author’s opinion, educators need to          .

 A. give students more room                 B. let students have more free time

 C. make students know how to memorize      D. teach students to compete appropriately

33. The developed world will have a shortage of working people mainly because           .

 A. college graduates can get better jobs        B. there aren’t enough college graduates

 C. most college graduates aren’t skilled enough 

 D. there aren’t enough colleges offering vocational courses

34. According to the last paragraph, which of the following about vocational education in India is true?

 A. Too many students arc taking vocational courses.

 B. Educational institutes need more cooperation with companies.

 C. The government forbids certain students to receive vocational education.

 D. The government has been stressing the importance of vocational education.

35. The text is mainly developed by           .

A. comparing different arguments            B. describing a phenomenon and giving examples

C. following the order of places              D. analyzing a problem and seeking solutions

Google is one of the largest and most powerful technology companies in the world. It was launched by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Now, it has over 50,000 employees and makes about $50 billion a year.    36   

Build the right team

    37    “Having great people involved is tremendously important,” says Larry. “Some entrepreneurs（企业家）are in such a rush to start a new business that they don’t wait to find the right people to work with.”

Make it simple

“Technology has this way of becoming overly complex, but simplicity is one of the reasons why people are attracted to Google,” writes Sergey. If your products are simple, then people will be more likely to use them.    38    

Become an expert

Larry and Sergey spent years researching www. google. com before they lauched the website.    39     The Google founders think that entrepreneurs should take time to really understand their business and their market as it’ll pay off in the long run.

    40   

“You should set really aggressive goals that you’re not sure you can achieve,” explains Larry. He says that some entrepreneurs only set goals they think they can attain. But, he explains, if you only set achievable goals you’re never going to create something truly extraordinary.

A Set tough goals

B Set achievable goals

C Larry and Sergey owe much of their success to teamwork.

D Google stresses cooperation with other entrepreneurs.

E And that meant they knew everything about how search engines worked.

F If you don’t understand your products, your customers certainly won’t.

G So, what are Larry and Sergey’s top tips for success?