1 . 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. (10%)

In the center of Rome stands the Pantheon (万神庙) --- a temple dedicated to all gods. A mere 6,611 kilometers away, China has its own “pantheon” --- the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Northwest China’s Gansu province.

Mogao is a complex of caves cut out of the side of a sandstone and rock cliff that     1     (stretch) almost two kilometres beside a dry riverbed in the Gobi Desert.

Having been a key outpost on the ancient Silk Road for centuries, the city of Dunhuang provided shelter for tired traders along the route east to west or vice versa. And it is     2     its location that the Mogao Caves can also be called a pantheon. It is not just Buddhist art that decorates its walls. There are Taoist artworks, traditional Chinese mythological characters,     3     influences from Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

When I experienced the Mogao Caves and Dunhuang for the first time, the mighty weight of history was perceivable: the artworks awe-inspiring and the stories     4     (tell) beautifully.

For many, the feeling one gets when dipping their toes in the ocean or breathing crisp mountain air is a unique experience tied to the landscape. So     5     the unique feeling one experiences when in the desert.

Golden dunes stretch out into the distance, going up and down like the sea in a storm. Sand is whipped up by the wind and carried,     6     (spread) the desert’s influence further and further, The desert is one harsh and amazing environment. It has been months     7     my visit and I still have sand in my shoes.

It is remarkable that many of the artworks of Mogao exist today considering the relentless power of the desert and the climate     8     they were made in.

But here is     9     humans step in once more. Work, in turn, is relentlessly being carried out to preserve and protect the treasures of Mogao. Stakeholders such as the Dunhuang Academy, and others, work tirelessly to ensure     10     remains there today remains there for future generations, too.

2 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages 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.

In the 1920s, the American economy was very strong, and life was good. World War I     1     (end). So people were interested in peace, not war. They had jobs and were making a lot of money. There were new technologies     2     (create) and people could afford to buy them. They began moving to the suburbs and living in houses. People had leisure time, so they could go out and enjoy     3    .

Then, on october 24, 1929, the stock market crashed. Suddenly, life changed for millions of people. Instantly, people lost billions of dollars in stock. Companies went bankrupt.     4    they went out of business, millions of people lost their jobs. The unemployment rate climbed. The president at the time, Herbert Hoover, was blamed    5    the economic problems. Only by resigning     6     he relieve people’s anger.

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was elected the new president of the United States. Roosevelt had a plan to end the Great Depression. His plan was called the New Deal. He increased the influence of the government on the economy. He tried to have the government     7     (give) people jobs. During the 1930s, life in the U.S. Was very difficult. It was only in 1941    8     the Great Depression ended. Then the U.S. Economy began to recover.

3 . 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.

English spelling is ridiculous. Sew and new don’t rhyme. Kernel and colonel     1    . The English spelling system, if you can even call it a system, is full of this kind of thing. Most people     2    (raise) with whatever language learn to read and write it to a very high level of accuracy.

Admittedly, for a non-native speaker, precise mastery usually involves a great deal of confusion and frustration. Part of the problem is that English spelling looks deceptively similar to other languages that use the same alphabet but in a much     3    (consistent) way.

English began its return as a written language in the 14th century. Over generations, it had crept back in among the nobility, as well as the clergy,     4     French and Latin were still the languages of educated and official pursuits.

Some spellings got entrenched this way, by     5    (print) over and over again in widely distributed texts, very early on. The word ghost, which had been spelled and pronounced in Old English, took on the ‘gh’ spelling     6     the influence of Flemish-trained compositors. It was such a commonly encountered word in English text, particularly in the phrase holy ghost and other translations of Latin,     7     it just began to look more common.

Other spellings     8    (arise), and were then cemented through the power exerted by the visual shape of similar words. The existence of ‘would’ and ‘should’, for example, brought about the spelling of ‘could’. There was no explicit intention     9    (make) them look the same, but the frequency of their appearance nudged (推动) them toward ending up that way.

Had the Norman invasion not interrupted the literary tradition of Old English, we might have ended up with a similar situation — old English would have continued to be the basis of the writing tradition that would have later been set into type. Instead, we had     10     number of parts moving and changing independently from each other.