TEXT A

If you like the idea of staying with with a family, living in house might be the answer. Good landladies – those who are superb cooks and launderers, are figures as popular in fiction as the bad ones who terrorize their guest and overcharge them at the slightest opportunity. The truth is probably somewhere between the two extremes. If you are lucky, the food will be adequate, some of your laundry may be done for you and you will have a reasonable amount of comfort and chompanionship. For the less fortune, house rules may restrict the freedom to invite friends to vistit, and shared cooking and bathroom facilities can be frustrating and row-provoking if tidy and untidy guest are living under the same roof.

The same disadvantages can apply to flat sharing, with the added difficulties that arise from deciding who pays for what, and in what proportion. One person may spend hours on the phone, while another rarely makes calls. If you want privacy with guest, how do you persuade the others to go out; how do you persuade them to leave you in peace, especially if you are student and want to study?

Conversely, flat sharing can be very cheap, there will always be someone to talk to and go out with, and the chores, in theory, can be shared.

81.   According to the passage, landladies are ________.

A. usually strict

B. always mean

C. adequately competent

D. very popular with their guest

82.   What is the additional disadvantage of flat sharing?

A. Problems of sharing and paying.

B. Differences in living habits.

C. Shared cooking and bathroom facilities.

D. Restriction to invite friends to visit.

83.   What is NOT mentioned as a benefit of flat sharing?

A. Rent is affordable.

B. There is companionship.

C. Housework.

D. There is peace and quiet.

TEXT B

1.      Travelling through the country a couple of weeks ago on business, I was listening to the talk of the late UK writer Douglas Adams' master work "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" on the radio and thought-I know, I'll pick up the next hitchhikers I see and ask them wahat the state of real hitching is today in Britain.

2.      I drove and drove on main roads and side roads for the next few days and never saw a single one.

3.      When I was in my teens and 20s, hitchhiking was a main form of long-distance transport. The kindness or curiosity of strangers took me all over Europe, North America, Asiaand southern Africa, Some of the lift-givers became friends, many provided hospitality on the road.

4.      Not only did you find out much more about a country than when traveling by train or plane, but there was that lelement of excitement about where you would finish up that night.

Hitchhiking featured importantly in Western culture. It has books and songs about it. So what has happened to it?

5.      A few years ago, I was asked the same question about hitching in a column of a newspaper. Hundreds of people from all over the world responded with their view on the state of hitchhiking.

6.      Rural Ireland was recommended as a friendly place for hitching, as was Quebec, Canada-"if you don't mind being criticized for not speaking French".

7.      But while hitchhiking was clearly still alive and well in some places, the general feeling was that throughout much of the west it was doomed.

8.      With so much news about crime in the media, people assumed that anyone on the open road without the money for even a bus ticket must present a danger. But do we need to be so wary both to hitch and to give a lift?

9.      In Poland in the 1960s, according to a Polish woman who e-mail me,＂the authorities introduced the Hitchhiker's Booklet. The booklet contained coupons for drivers, so each time a driver picked somebody, he or she received a coupon. At the end of the season, drivers who had picked up the most hikers were rewarded with various prizes. Everyone was hitchhiking then".

10.   Surely this is a good idea for society. Hitchhiking would increase respect by breaking down barriers between strangers. It would help fight global warming by cutting down on fuel consumption as hitchhikers would be using existing fuels. It would also improveeducational standards by delivering instant lessons in geography, history, politics and sociology.

11.   A century before Douglas Adams wrote his "Hitchhiker's Guide", another adventure story writer, Robert Louis Stevenson, gave us that what should be the hitchhiker's motto:＂To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." What better time than putting a holiday weekend into practice. Either put it to the test yourself, or help out someone who is trying to travel hopefully with thumb outstreched.

84.   In which paragraph (s) does the writer comment on his experience of hitchhiking?

A. （3）

B. （4）

C. （3）and （4）

D. （4）and （5）

85.   What is the current situation of hitchhiking?

A. It is popular in some parts of the world.

B. It is popular throughout the west.

C. It is popular in Poland.

86.   What is the writer's attitude towards the practice in Poland?

A. Critical.

B. Unclear.

C. Somewhat favourable.

D. Strongly favourable.

87.   The writer has mentioned all the following benefits of hitchhiking EXCEPT

A. promoting mutual respect between strangers

B. increasing one's confidence in strangers

C. protecting enviroment

D. enrich one's knowledge

88.＂Either put it to the test yourself…"in Paragraph means

A. to experience the hopefulness

B. to read Adams' book

C. to offer someone a lift

TEXT C

I am afraid to sleep. I have been afraid to sleep for the last few weeks. I am so tired that, finally, I do sleep, but only for a few minutes. It is not a bad dream that wakes me; it is the realiry I took with me into sleep. I try to think of something else.

Immediately the woman in the marketplace comes into my mind.

I was on my way to dinner last night when I saw her. She was selling skirts. She moved with the same ease and loveliness I often saw in the women of Laos. Her long black hair was as shiny as the black silk of the skirts she was selling. In her hair, she wore three silk ribbons, blue, green, and white. They meminded me of my childhood and how my girlfriends and I used to spend hours braiding ribbons into our hair.

I don't know the word for "ribbons", so I put my hand to my own hair and, with three fingers against my head, I looked at her ribbons and said "Beautiful." She lowered her eyes and said nothing. I wasn't sure if she understood me (I don't speak Laotian very well).

I looked back down at the skirts. They ahd designs in them: squares and triangles and circles of pink and green silk. They were very pretty. I decided to buy one of those skirts, and I began to bargain with her over the price. It is the custom to bargain in Asia. In Laos bargaining is done in soft voices and easy moves with the sort of quiet peacefulness.

She smiled, more with her eyes than with her lips. She was pleased by the few words I was able to say in her language, although they were mostly numbers, and she saw that I understood something about the soft playfulness of bargaining. We shook our heads in disagreement over the price; then, immediately, we made another offer and then another shake of the head. She was so pleased that unexpectedly, she accepted the last offer I made. But it was too soon. The price was too low. She was being too generous and wouldn't make enough money. I moved quickly and picked up two more skirts and paid for all three at the price set; that way I was able to pay her three times as much before she had a chance to lower the price for the larger purchase. She smiled openly then, and, for the first time in months, my spirit lifted. I almost felt happy.

The feeling stayed with me while she wrapped the skirts in a newspaper and handed them to me. When I left, though, the feeling left, too. It was as though it stayed behind in marketplace. I left tears in my throat. I wanted to cry. I didn't, of course.

I have learned to defend myself against what is hard; without knowing it, I have also learned to defend myself against what is soft and what should be easy.

I get up, light a candle and want to look at the skirts. They are still in the newspaper that the woman wrapped them in. I remove the paper, and raise the skirts up to look at them again before I pack them. Something falls to floor. I reach down and feel something cool in my hand. I move close to the candlelight to see what I have. There are five long silk ribbons in my hand, all different colours. The woman in the maketplace! She has given these ribbons to me!

There is no defense against a generous spirit, and this time I cry, and very hard, as if I could make up for all the months that I didn't cry.

90.   Which of the following in NOT corret?

A. The writer was not used to bargaining.

B. People in Asia always bargain when buying things.

C. Bargaining in Laos was quiet and peaceful.

D. The writer was ready to bargain with the woman.

91.   The writer assumed that the voman accepted the last offer mainly because woman ________.

A. thought that the last offer was reasonable

B. thought she could still make much money

C. was glad that the writer knew their way of bargainning

D. was tired of bargainning with the writer any more

92.   Why did the writer finally decide to buy three skirts?

A. The skirts were cheap and pretty.

B. She liked the patterns on the skirts.

C. She wanted to do something as compensation.

D. She was fed up with further bargainning with the woman.

93.   When did the writer left the marketplace, she wanted to cry, but did not because ________.

A. she had learned to stay cool and unfeeling

B. she was afraid of crying in public

C. she had learned to face difficulties bravely

D. she had to show in public that she was strong

94.   Why did the writer cry eventually when she looked at the skirts again?

A. she suddently felt very sad

B. she liked the ribbons so much

C. she was overcome by emotion

D. she felt sorry for the woman

TEXT D

The kids are hanging out. I pass small bands of students, in my way to work these morings. They have become a familiar part of the summer landscape.

These kids are not old enough for jobs. Nor are they rich enough for camp. They are school children without school. The calendar called the school year ran out on them a few weeks ago. Once supervised by teachers and principals, they now appear to be "self care".

Passing them is like passing through a time zone. For much of our history, after all, Americans arranged the school year around the needs of work and family. In 19th-century cities, schools were open seven or eight hours a day, 11 months a year. In rural America, the year was arranged around the growing season. Now, only 3 percent of families follow the agricultural model, but nearly all schools are scheduled as if our children went home early to milk the cows and took months off to work the crops. Now, three-quarters of the mothers of school-age children work, but the calendar is written as if they were home waiting for the school bus.

The six-hour day, the 180-day school year is regarded as something holy. But when parents work an eight-hour day and a 240-day year, it means something different. It means that many kids go home to empty houses. It means that, in the summer, they hang out.

"We have a huge mismatch between the school calendar and realisties of family life,"says Dr. Ernest Boyer, head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Dr. Boyer is one of many who believe that a radical revision of the school calendar is inevitable.＂School, whether we like it or not, is educational. It always has been."

His is not popular idea. School are routinely burdened with the job of solving all our social problems. Can they be asked to meet the needs of our work and family lives?

It may be easier to promote a linger school year on its educational merits and, indeed, the educational case is compelling. Despite the complaints and studies about our kids' lack of learning, the United State still has a shorter school year than any industrial nation. In most of Europe, the school year is 220 days. In Japan, it is 240 days long. While classroom time alone doesn't produce a well-educated child, learning takes time and more learning takes more time. The long summers of forgetting take a toll.

The opposition to a longer school year comes from families that want to and can provide other experiences for their children. It comes from teachers. It comes from tradition. And surely from kids. But the most important part of the conflict has been over the money.

95.   Which of the following is an opinion of the auther's?

A. ＂The kids are hanging out."

B. ＂They are school children without school."

C. ＂These kids are not old enough for jobs."

D. "The calendar called the school year ran out on them a few weeks ago."

96.   The current American school calendar was developed in the 19th century according to ________.

A. the growing season on nation's form

B. the labour demands of the industrial age

C. teachers' demands for more vacation time

D. parents' demands for other experiences for their kids

97.   The author thinks that the current school calendar ________.

A. is still valid

B. is out of date

C. can not be revised

D. can not be defended

98.   Why was Dr. Boy's idea unpopular?

A. He argues for the role of school in solving social problems.

B. He supports the current school calendar.

C. He thinks that school year and family life should be donsidered separately.

D. He strongly believes in the educational role of school.

99."The long summers of forgetting take a toll"in the last paragraph but one means that

A. long summer vacation slows down the progress go learning

B. long summer vacation has been abandoned in Europe

C. long summers result in less learning time

D. long summers are a result of tradition

100.The main purpose of the passage is ________.

A. to describe how American children spend their summer

B. to explain the needs of the modern working families

C. to discuss the problems of the current school calendar

D. to persuade parents to stay at home to look after their kids

PART VI  WRITING

SECTION A COMPOSITION [35 MIN]

Nowadays the Internet has become part of people’s life , and million of young people have made friends online.

Write on ANSWER SHEET TWO a composition of about 200 words on the following topic:

Is It Wise to Make Friends Online

You are to write in three parts.

In the first part, state specifically what your opinion is.

In the second part, support your opinion with one or two reasons.

In the last part, bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.

Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the instructions may result in a loss of marks.

SECTION B NOTE-WRITING ［10 MIN.］

Write on ANSWER SHEET ONE a note of about 50-60 words based on the following situation:

Your classmate, Jimmy, is head of the university’s swimming club. He has invited you to join the club, but you like some other sport. Write him a note, declining and explaining why.

Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness.