SECTION 5: LISTENING TEST (30 minutes)

Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

Questions 1~4 http://tr.hjenglish.com/
      A judge condemned European Union laws against corporal punishment and the rise in single-parent families as he sent two young arsonists to a secure unit yesterday.

      Sentencing the boys, aged ten and 13, to two and a half years, Judge Rodwell QC said in Luton Crown Court that the abolition of corporal punishment in schools had left teachers unable to discipline unruly youngsters, leading to an increase in delinquency.
 
      The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, set fire to a neighbour's house as they roamed the streets of a council estate after being expelled from school.

      Judge Rodwell said: "With the best intention in the world corporal punishment  has been abolished and indeed that is a requirement of the EU".

      "But this has resulted in an extremely unsatisfactory situation. Nobody wants children to be flogged but it is no longer possible for a teacher to deal with even a minor incident by a cuff round the ear or a smack on the hand, which is swift and something the child entirely understands and stops minor incidents escalating.

      "If the child does not respond to being told not to bring gin into school or beat his mates up the teacher has to go through discipline procedures. If the correct procedures are followed a great deal of verbiage comes out which may satisfy the intelligent niceties of educationists but has no impact on a great number of children. Suspension is hardly a sanction." http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      The judge expressed concern over single-parent families, and said that children needed two parents. The boys had both come from broken homes. He said:"Both children come from homes where a father for a lot of the time was not present. It is often said that in single-parent homes children can be given as much love as they need but that is not the entire answer." http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      During their trial last month the court was told that the two boys were among a gang of children who harassed the Smith family on the Downside estate, Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

      One day, the boys put paper through the letter box and tried to set light to it, but failed. Then a woman neighbour, described by the judge as "the  neighbour from hell". lent them a lighter so they kicked the door in and started a fire a on a hall table.

      The blaze left the house uninhabitable, causing ￡4,000 damage to the building and destroying virtually everything the family owned. The boys denied arson.

1. Why were the two boys sent to a secure unit?           
2. What is corporal punishment referred to in this passage? Cite examples of corporal punishment from the passage.
3. What are the advantages of corporal punishment, according to Judge Rodwell?
4. Explain in your own words the statement "suspension is hardly a sanction" (para. 6)?

Question 5~7
     Five train companies will have to ask for more cash from the next government to run services, according to a report out yesterday.
 
     The study, conducted by a former transport analyst with City accountants Coopers and Lybrand for Save Our Railways, the pressure group, claimed that many private operators bid so aggressively for train services they will be unable to meet the ambitious targets they have set themselves. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

     Another four franchises are likely to run into financial difficulties, making losses even if they manage to increase revenues by 16 per cent over seven years.

     The loss-making franchises--Cardiff Railways, West Anglia and Great Northern and South Wales and West, Thameslink and Thames Trains--are likely to require more than ￡500m in extra subsidy in order to keep trains running. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      "There has been concern in the rail industry for some time about the way that some of the later franchises were let to bidders who were taking a gamble," said Keith Bill, national secretary of Save Our Railways.

     The City's initial concerns about rail privatisation have meant that many early bids were "given away". South West Trains, which introduced an emergency timetable after cutting driver numbers, is predicted to make nearly ￡480m if it grows at 3 per cent a year.

     Also likely to make bumper profits are Great Western, which runs express InterCity services from London to the west country and could make ￡462m, and French-based company CGEA, in line for more than ￡600m from its two commuter services. Campaigners point out that Opraf, the government body which let out franchises, realised that some would make money and others would run into difficulties.

     Train companies said that the growth forecasts were too low. "In two years we have increased our takings by 50 per cent," said a spokesman for Thames Trains. "So we expect to grow for faster than this report estimates."

     The analysis should jolt Labour's rail policy into life. The speed sell-off of British Rail has caught the party off-guard and forced its transport  team into a series of embarrassing U-turns--which has culminated in a decision not to take any bankrupt train  service into public hands. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      "We will consider all the options and as a last resort we will offer a bankrupt train srvice to private bidders in order to secure the best deal for  the taxpayer," said a sopkeswoman for Andrew Smith, the shadow Secretary of State of Transport.

      Senior railway managers point out that this would mean that the Labour party would be forced into paying more subsidy.                    

5. Why are some train companies likely to make losses even if they manage to increase revenue?
6. What does the sentence "many early bids were `given away'" (para. 6) mean?
7. According to the passage, what are the impacts of the speed privatisation of British Rail on the Labour Party? http://tr.hjenglish.com/

Question 8~10
     The message in London's singles flat market is clear if you can find anything you like then buy now, Dixie Nichols writes.

     London is seeing "a vibrant and wealthy singles flat market" according to David Salvi of the Clerkenwell agents Hurford, Salvi and Carr. The middle  market flat agents Douglas & Gordon and Chestertons both say prices in the sector are up 20 per cent on a year ago, both say this sector has improved by 20  per cent in the past 12 months, and both have a backlog of buyers. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

     Melissa Carter, of Douglas & Gordon's Battersea office, says: "What was a good offer two months ago looks about right now. the deals are holding and valuers (who had been acting as a brake) are now prepared to follow."

     Buyers in the singles market come wielding big deposits (up to a third of the price is not unusual), and frequently leapfrog the studio and one-bed flats starting in at two beds. Often the second bed is let to a friend to take the sting out of the mortgage. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

     Although agents complain of there not being enough stock, there is a steady influx from the commercial block conversions. The new wave of developments is hitting the market now.

     The market is hungry and snaps up anything well priced. The Ziggurat Building in Clerkenwell, north London, sold all 34 units in its first phase within an hour of opening its doors, but the price was exceptional-- ￡140 a sq ft when most schemes hover at ￡200 to ￡250.

     The developers' headline price may not have shot up in the past year but the amount of space you get for your money has been shaved, When Sapcote's Beauchamp Building in Hatton Garden, central London, was introduced last September the shell sizes of 1,200 to 1,400 sq ft were said to be far too small. When launched in January the market was impressed by their size.

     London flat agents have no problem in forecasting a 10 per cent rise over the next 12 months despite election wobbles. It may be better than that: Simon Agace of Winkworth, says: "The top of the flat market has already followed the house market's summer spring and the middle range will follow."

8. What is implied in the message "If you can find anything you like then buy now."?
9. Why do buyers often choose the two-bed flats?
10. What does the example of "Sapcote's Beauchamp Building in Hatton Gardon, central London" tell us?

SECTION 6: LISTENING TEST (30 minutes)

Directions:  Translate the following passage into English and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

    太湖明珠无锡，位于江苏省南部，地处美丽富饶的长江三角洲中心地带。这里气候宜人，物产丰富，风景优美，是中国重点风景旅游城市。与万里长城齐名的古京杭大运河纵
贯市区，泛舟河上，能领略水乡的民俗风情。
 
    距市区七公里的太湖梅梁景区是太湖风景之精华，碧波万顷，渔帆点点，湖光山色令人陶醉。其中的鼋头渚巨石状如鼋头，远眺烟波浩渺的太湖，被诗人郭沫若誉为“太湖佳绝处”。

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