1 . My father decided to start learning French when he was 57. On the surface, his retirement hobby seems a little random — our family has no connection to French-speaking countries — but his ______ ran deeper than a passion for cakes. My grandmother developed signs of Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔兹海默症) in her early 70s, and studies suggest that being bilingual, that is, being able to speak two languages equally well, can ______ the start of the condition by up to five years. Drawn by that ______ benefit, many people have attempted to pick up a new language in adulthood.

Lots of activities are linked to better brain health in old age, like getting more education when you’re younger and physical activity. Experts say regularly speaking multiple languages may be especially ______ though. “We use language in all aspects of daily life, so a bilingual brain is ______ working,” said Mark Antoniou, a professor at Western Sydney University who specializes in bilingualism.

The age at which you learn another language appears to be less important than how ______ you speak it. The cognitive (认知的) benefit is from having to ______ your mother tongue, which your brain is forced to do if you’re trying to recall the right words in another language. So if the second language is used a lot, you’re getting that cognitive ______. That process is called cognitive inhibition. In theory, by improving these types of processes, the brain becomes stronger to the ______ caused by diseases like dementia. The stronger your mental power, the thinking goes, the longer you can function normally, even if your brain health starts to ______.

However, evidence for the benefits of learning a second language as a hobby in your 60s is ______. Research by Dr. Antoniou and colleagues found that while Chinese adults 60 and up improved on cognition tests after a six-month language learning program, people who played games like Sudoku did as well. Two more recent studies on the topic found virtually no ______ in cognitive performance after people took part in language-learning programs.

The scientists who conducted those studies offered a few potential ______. One is that the participants were highly motivated volunteers, who may have already been at peak performance for their age, making it hard to see any ______. Another is that the language interventions were perhaps too short. The handful of studies looking into the issue have used language lessons that were very different in their ______ and frequency. Some studies taught participants for eight months, others for just one very intense week.

1.

A．affection

B．contribution

C．motivation

D．struggle

2.

A．delay

B．prevent

C．signal

D．stimulate

3.

A．additional

B．educational

C．lasting

D．potential

4.

A．beneficial

B．common

C．impractical

D．rare

5.

A．carelessly

B．constantly

C．creatively

D．delicately

6.

A．long

B．often

C．soon

D．well

7.

A．command

B．practice

C．restrict

D．spread

8.

A．function

B．psychology

C．system

D．training

9.

A．damages

B．operations

C．pains

D．signs

10.

A．decline

B．improve

C．matter

D．restore

11.

A．available

B．mounting

C．stronger

D．weaker

12.

A．difference

B．involvement

C．point

D．reduction

13.

A．applications

B．explanations

C．findings

D．suggestions

14.

A．diversities

B．improvements

C．outcomes

D．possibilities

15.

A．content

B．intention

C．length

D．requirement

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．They provide a variety of subjects in their courses.

B．They award most degrees online to their students.

C．They ensure students to improve their language skills.

D．They have met certain standards of excellence.

2.

A．They are addicted to computer.

B．They lack human interaction.

C．They are reluctant to meet people.

D．They need physical exercises.

3.

A．His financial situation.	B．His schedule arrangement.
C．His interpersonal competence.	D．His social activities.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．They used to be unable to listen to public debates.

B．They were more patient and sociable then people now.

C．They learned from political speeches.

D．They used to think in terms of a printed text.

2.

A．It makes people get ideas from images, not from written words.

B．It has made the public less interested in politics.

C．The quality of television programming has declined.

D．Political programs on TV are too complex.

3.

A．The environmental effects of consumerism.

B．How consumer culture has made people unreasonable.

C．How television has affected people's thinking ability.

D．Television's damage to the environment

4 .

A．Teaching English is the biggest business throughout the world.

B．Language schools are being established everywhere.

C．Many Canadians are fond of teaching English in Canada.

D．Language schools are more than other types of schools.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

What If You’re Not Good at English?

Researchers whose first language is not English can spend around twice as long reading an English scientific journal article as native speakers. For a PhD student, that can mean     1     (spend) up to 19 additional working days per year just reading papers.

These statistics,     2     (publish) today in PLOS Biology, might not be shocking, researchers say, but it’s important to measure the effects of language barriers on the careers of academics       3     are not fluent in English. “It is the first step for the scientific community       4     (make) more efforts to solve this problem”, says Tatsuya Amano, a biodiversity researcher at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and a co-author of the study.

The team found that among scientists who had published only one paper in English, scientists from countries       5     English is generally poor spent 29.8 percent more time writing papers than native English speakers;     6     from countries with moderate English proficiency (能力) spent 50.6% more time. Similarly, the researchers found that people from countries with low English proficiency spent an average of 90.8 percent more time reading scientific articles       7     native English speakers.

At conferences, even those who overcome obstacles face difficulties in presenting their work in English. Germana Barata, a researcher who     8     (specialize) in science communication at the State University of Campinas in Brazil, says that despite being fluent in English, she still feels uncomfortable at times. “We       9     (give) the same amount of time to present, but all that we can say in 10 minutes is different from       10     a native speaker can say,” she points out.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
A New Way to Learn Languages

Nowadays, the Internet is changing the way people learn languages. There is still no way to avoid the hard work through vocabulary lists and grammar rules, but since the birth of the Internet, books, tapes and even CDs     1     (replace) by email, video chat and social networks.

Livemocha, a Seattle-based company, has created a website helping people learn more than 38 languages by exchanging messages over the Internet and then     2     (correct) each other’s messages. The lessons,     3     form they are in, are delivered online.

The CEO of Livemocha says the website’s advantage is the context     4     you may practice speaking with a real person. “The great irony is that even if you have learned a foreign language in the classroom for years, you are not confident     5     (go) into a restaurant, striking up a conversation,” he said. The casual connections with real people throughout the world are not just fun and surprising but reveal more about     6     the language is really used.

Livemocha is now experimenting with many ways that resemble the games     7     (find) on other social websites to motivate people. Besides, each person can set up a profile     8     includes a short self-description and what language he or she would like to learn. Therefore, if you want to learn one language, you will easily find many people fluent in this language. And it becomes     9     (challenging) to find a study partner. An email or two is all it takes.

There are more and more companies like Livemocha offering online language learning to students throughout the world.     10     merely helping people practice different languages, they also enable people to share interests and make new friends

7 . Research into language learning and motivation has changed direction over the past two decades, shifting from what are now considered overly-simplistic models of motivation, such as “integrativeness” (where students are motivated to learn an L2 because they wish to join a community that speaks this language) and “instrumentalism” (where motivation comes from a desire for financial or some other sort of return). Motivation to learn has now been linked to a second-language identity, which is not conceptualised as static, but dynamic, shifting and open to change. Some research studies have focused on investment in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) settings in English-speaking countries: how students invest in the target language in order to get certain returns, not only financial but also related to status, an idea which Bonny Norton Peirce notes as having been borrowed from the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. There is also growing research in the area of “future selves” and language learning, such as that by Zoltán Dörnyei and Ema Ushioda and by Jill Hadfield.

Studies into second language identity have revealed the investment committed to building up an identity in English in the lives of economic migrants (移民) and those choosing to settle long-term in English-speaking countries. David Block conducted research into economic migrants living in London, revealing how they invest through study opportunities, seeking out locals to speak to, or using English in work. Each of his case studies reveals different features and patterns in these subjects’ lives.

Yet it is also true that second-language identity formation is alive in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts, if I may draw a distinction from the ESOL further-education context (in the UK and the US). In an age of globalisation and internationalisation, the role of English has come into much sharper focus, and such a changed global reality poses new questions about motivation to learn. Dörnyei argues that we are now dealing with “global English”, and that its acquisition is related to building up “a global identity”. I put the case that international English language examinations, such as those offered by Cambridge English, are a powerful symbol of cultural capital, offering returns full of imagery and entry to imagined communities. Imagined communities, it has been argued, are imagined personal networks of the future, whether social, professional or even international. Investment and the motivation to learn can spring from the desire to belong to these imagined communities. How this imagery and investment relates to their own students should be something that teachers become familiar with.

1. The word “static” (in paragraph 1) is the closest in meaning to ______.

A．unchanging

B．movable

C．identified

D．focused

2. Which of the following is the new motivation for learning English according to the passage?

A．To plan for a brighter future abroad.

B．To contribute to increasing globalization.

C．To establish a second-language identity.

D．To expect substantial investment returns.

3. It can be concluded from the passage that ______.

A．teachers may have no idea about their students’ needs

B．the motivation to learn English changes with the times

C．imagined communities are most likely to be exclusive

D．English competence testing is a gateway into new contexts

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．An investment in language studies

B．A question of second-language identity

C．An access to ESOL and EFL

D．A debate about motivation to learn

8 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Are exclamation marks necessary?!

Punctuation is so important in writing that it is one of the first things you learn in school. It is a universal code with different marks to help with the meaning of     1     is being written. As is known to us, it     2     indicate the end of a sentence, a question or — in the exclamation mark’s case — a strong emotion. Without an exclamation mark in the correct place, a warning road sign might read, “Children please drive slowly”     3         4     “Children! Please drive slowly”.

An exclamation mark is a valid form of punctuation     5     origin can be traced back to a 14^th century Italian scholar. The exclamation mark informs the reader that there are strong feelings in the words. Although it is up to the reader     6     (grasp) exactly what that emotion is, it’s a useful signal. Also, exclamation marks on road signs help to keep people safe. As punctuation expert Philip Cowell writes, “There’s a meaningful difference between ‘duck’ and ‘duck!’” Of course, using them too much     7     (make) exclamation marks lose their purpose but that doesn’t mean they are useless.

However,     8     matters how punctuation is used. Some writers argue that exclamation marks are never truly necessary. Famous author Terry Pratchett writes that someone who uses multiple exclamation marks is likely to wear “underpants on his head”. Perhaps this is because they seem shouty and forced,     9     (give) away a writer’s need to tell the reader how to read a sentence. It’s       10     (good) to leave them out and let the reader react to the words on their own terms. A good writer can create emotions with just words and sentences,     11     that’s fear, wonder or joy. Exclamation marks make the writer seem desperate and can be tiring to read. One writer described them as “the cockroach of the punctuation world”, meaning they are everywhere, and they are pests.