Today, I’d like to talk about some of the changes land can undergo, specifically desertification, that’s the process through which land becomes part of a desert. Now a desert is defined as a place that receives a certain maximum amount of rainfall. But you may not know that it usually takes more than just a lack of water to turn productive land into a desert. There are several specific human activities that when combined with a lack of rainfall encourages desertification. For example, over cultivation, growing more crops than soil can support. The soil loses its nutrients, so it needs either to be fertilized or to be left unused for at least a season. But if neither of these things happens, if these nutrients in the soil don’ t get replaced, the damaged soil stops producing. Another cause of desertification is overgrazing. That’s when the grasses and trees and shrubs of an area are expected to feed more animals than they reasonably can. Too many animals eating in the same area will kill the vegetation. And because it’s the roots of this vegetation that hold much of the soil together, when too much of the vegetation dies, the soil erodes. But maybe the most ironic example of human behavior that can lead to desertification is irrigation. It may seem to run counter to common sense to say that introducing water into an area can cause it to become more like a desert But there are plenty of bad irrigation practices that do just that Bringing in too much salty water and then not providing adequate drainage for it will fill the soil with salt, and turn the area into a desert. Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 16 to 19. 16. How is the soil damaged by over cultivation? 17. What is overgrazing? 18. How does overgrazing damage soil? 19. According to the speaker, what is the main problem with irrigation? It receives more nutrients than it can absorb. It becomes oversaturated with water. It loses the ability to support insect life. It loses nutrients that aren ’t replaced.

M: I suppose that in Britain, too, family life has changed a lot in the last century, hasn’t it? W: Oh yes, very much so. I think families used to be much larger. My great grandmother was one of the fourteen children! Very few people nowadays care to have such large families. M: I suppose that’s why in the old days very few women took up careers outside the home. They were too busy bringing up their families. W: Yes, but rich families had servants to do the housework and even nannies to look after the children. M: Would you like to have lived then, Betty? W: Not particularly! Women then weren’t as free as they are today. For example, they often had to marry men they didn’t like and they were financially dependent on their parents or their husbands. I think we are much better off today, don’t you? M: Well, I suppose we have more freedom of choice and we’re more independent, but, you know, some arranged marriages were very successful. Women seemed to be more content with their husbands. Besides, there was something rather charming about courtship in the old days. W: Really? Such as what? M: Well, the custom of asking a girl’ s father for permission to marry her, for example. W: And supposing the father didn’t give his permission? No, thank you. I think family life is much pleasanter today because it is freer and more informal. At least today we are free to marry whoever we like and to take up a job, if we wish. M: That’ s true. But I still think that family life in the old days must have been very pleasant and secure. Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 1. Which country do they talk about? 2. How many brothers and sisters did Betty’ s great grandmother have? 3. Why did few women take up careers in those days, as supposed by the man? 4. Which of the following does not show that women were less free than they are today, according to Betty? Britain. America. Canada. China.

The economic crisis in Europe and North America led to more than 10,000 extra suicides, according to figures from UK researchers. A study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, showed “suicides have risen markedly“. The research group said some deaths may have been avoidable as some countries showed no increase in suicide rate. Campaign groups said the findings showed how important good mental health services were. The study by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine analysed data from 24 EU countries, the US and Canada. It said suicides had been declining in Europe until 2007. By 2009 there was a 6.5% increase, a level that was sustained until 2011. It was the equivalent of 7,950 more suicides than would have been expected if previous trends continued, the research group said. Deaths by suicide were also falling in Canada, but there was a marked increase when the economic crisis took hold in 2008, leading to 240 more suicides. The number of people taking their own life was already increasing in the US, but the rate “accelerated“ with the economic crisis, leading to 4,750 additional deaths. The report said losing a job, having a home repossessed and being in debt were the main risk factors. However, some countries resisted the trend. Sweden, Finland and Austria all avoided increases in the suicide rate during the economic crisis. Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard. 9. What has caused more than 10,000 extra suicides in Europe and North America? 10. How many countries’ data have been analyzed in the study? 11. How many additional deaths in the US during the economic crisis? The depressing cold weather. The bad economic situation. Unhealthy diet. Drugs and alcohol.

As I am sure you are aware, history is full of people who were so admired that over the centuries they become almost mythical figures. George Washington is a good example. Everyone knows this story about his chopping down the cherry tree when he was young and bravely confessing to his mischief later. People greatly admired Washington’s integrity. And so, out of that, this story evolved, even though no one knows for sure whether the incident ever occurred. Then there is the American Indian, Poke Hunters, beloved by history for making peace between the English Colonies and the American Indians. The history of her life has also become somewhat mythical. At the historical society exhibit next week, we’ll see many artistic works depicting the major events of her life. And while we are there, keeping in mind that much of what you’ll see in the paintings reflects how much she was admired, but not necessarily the fact of her life. For instance, one painting shows her saving the life of Jon Smith, an English Colonist, who had been captured by her tribe. Smith, so the story goes, was about to be executed when twelve-years-old Poke Hunters lay her head on top of his. Tell you a lot about her courage. But Jon Smith himself related this story only years after Poke Hunters had become famous, which suggests that he may have exaggerated the truth a little bit, as many of the works that we’ll see in next week may have done. Something else to remember: paintings portrait her physical appearance in many different ways, but always flattering ways. Yet only one picture of her was ever painted while she was living. Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 23 to 25. 23. Why does the speaker mention the story about George Washington and the cherry tree? 24. According the speaker, why is Poke Hunters famous? 25. What does the speaker imply about most of the paintings of Poke Hunters? To demonstrate George Washington’s survival skills. To show that some stories about famous people may be historically inaccurate. To describe a historical event that was portrayed in a painting. To tell a story that George Washington told about himself.

I’ ve mentioned how DNA have solved many mysteries in biology. And today I want to talk about how it might relate to hypothesis about the travels of the green turtle. Every winter some green turtles make a 2000 km journey from Brazil to Ascension Island in the middle of Atlantic, where they mate and lay eggs. But the question is why do they travel so far to lay their eggs? One researcher hypothesized that there are two parts to the explanation. One is natal homing, the instinct that drives green turtles to always return to the beach where they were hatched. The second part has to do with continental drift, the theory that the positions of earth continents have changed considerably overtime. Brazil and Ascension Island were once much closer together, and continental drift drove them apart. But the turtles kept on going back to the island where they hatched. However another scientist question this explanation on the ground that it would be very unlikely that conditions would allow generations of turtles over hundreds of millions of years to keep going back to the same nesting ground every single year. So, what is the connection to DNA? Well, there are groups of green turtles that nest in locations other than the Ascension Island. If green turtles always return to the place where they were hatched, then the turtles that have been going to the Ascension Island to nest would’ve been genetically isolated long enough to have DNA that was very different from the green turtles that nest else where. But when scientists examine DNA from these turtles, their DNA wasn’t that different from the DNA of the turtles that go to Ascension Island. Do you have a shock? Well, we still don’t know the answer to the question about why a certain group of turtles go to Ascension Island, but this study was a nice example of the usefulness of DNA analysis to biology. Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 20 to 22. 20. What do green turtles do when they get to Ascension Island? 21. According to one hypothesis, why do green turtles go to Ascension Island? 22. How is DNA used in research on green turtles? Teach their young how to swim. Mate and lay eggs. Hide from predators. Eat different kinds of fish.

Next month Britons will have yet more smartphones to choose from, when devices from Wiko, a two-year-old French company, go on sale. Wiko hopes that its phones, which in France start at around 70 Euros, will be as popular across Britain as at home. In 2013 nearly 7% of French first-time smartphone-buyers chose a Wiko. In early 2014 the firm claims to have been the second-biggest vendor in France. Wiko is not alone. In both rich countries and poor ones, cheaper smartphone brands are making inroads. Demand for costly phones, mainly in developed economies, is slowing, but that for less expensive devices is booming. People who will buy their first smartphones today perhaps care less about the brand and more about price than the richer, keener types of a few years ago. They are likely to pay less for a nice new smartphone than they did for their shabby old phone, because the cost of making smartphones has decreased. The declining cost of making phones means that buyers are getting more for their money. Two years ago the median price of a smartphone was $325. Last year it was $250. This year it may be $200. The cheapest phones will become cheaper still. All this is great for smartphone-buyers everywhere. It is less good news for the market leaders, Apple and Samsung—the only vendors making much money. Apple may evade being influenced by its operating system and apparently exceptional brand, although it has lately been selling cheaper iPhones. Samsung, which dominates the market for phones running on Google’ s Android operating system, may be more vulnerable. Granted, Samsung makes cheaper devices as well as dearer ones, and it can afford some slimming of its margins. But its problem, Mr. Jeronimo, a researcher from Internet Data Center, says, is that it carries lots of costs, in research and development and in marketing, that cheaper rivals do not. Samsung is doubtless wise to this. Hence its attempt to push beyond the smartphone, into smart watches and wristbands, connected domestic appliances and the business market. The weather of Mobile-phone brands is variable: ask Ericsson, HTC, Motorola and Nokia—the previous successful brands. Samsung has spent buckets of gold building its name. It will not want to be replaced by the Wikos of the world.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition entitled Social Practice. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1.

M: How did you find this job? W: Well, I knew the shop because I passed it every day on the way to school. The owners became ill and had to sell up, so my parents helped me to buy the business. M: Have you changed anything? W: Yes. It was just a small grocer’ s before, but now I sell all kinds of things. And the shop stays open longer. M: Why did you decide to change things? W: Before I opened I did a small survey. I asked customers what they’d like to buy and when they’d like the shop to be open. M: So you’ re giving them what they want? W: I hope so! I open at 6:30 every morning, when local factory workers come in for papers and cigarettes. During the day I sell all kinds of things to housewives: fresh milk, frozen fish, cooked meat, and so on. M: Do you close for lunch? W: Oh no. That’s a very good time for business. I make sandwiches to order—ham and egg seems to be the favourite at the moment. And lots of people like to do a bit of shopping in the lunch hour. M: Are you busy after lunch? W: Yes, during the afternoon I sell a lot of sweets to schoolchildren on the way home. Some of my best customers come from my old school! Then quite a lot of people call in after work. They may want something for supper, or some chocolates to take to a friend. I close the shop at 6:00 and go home for my supper. M: That’ s a long day. Don’ t you get tired? W: Well, I do get rather tired. But I’m never bored. My friends said running a shop would be boring, but it isn’ t. I find it really exciting and I love meeting people all the time. Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 5. What is the difference between the woman’ s and the previous shop? 6. What did she do before she decided to change things? 7. What does the woman sell during lunchtime? 8. How did she feel about running a shop? The previous one sold groceries and it stayed open longer. The previous one sold all kinds of things and it stayed open longer. The woman’s sells groceries and it stays open longer. The woman’s sells all kinds of things and it stays open longer.

Once it was possible to define male and female roles easily by the division of labour. Men worked outside the home and earned the income to support their families, while women cooked the meals and took care of the home and the children. These roles were firmly fixed for most people, and there was not much opportunity for women to exchange their roles. But by the middle of this century, men’ s and women’ s roles were becoming less firmly fixed. In the 1950s, economic and social success was the goal of the typical American. But in the 1960s a new force developed called the counterculture. The people involved in this movement did not value the middle-class goals. The counterculture presented men and women with new role choices. Taking more interest in childcare, men began to share child-raising tasks with their wives. In fact, some young men and women moved to communal homes or farms where the economic and childcare responsibilities were shared equally by both sexes. In addition, many Americans did not value the traditional male role of soldier. Some young men refused to be drafted as soldiers to fight in the war in Vietnam. In terms of numbers, the counterculture was not a very large group of people. But its influence spread to many parts of American society. Working men of all classes began to change their economic and social patterns. Industrial workers and business executives alike cut down on “overtime“ work so that they could spend more leisure time with their families. Some doctors, lawyers, and teachers turned away from high paying situations to practice their professions in poorer neighbourhoods. In the 1970s, the feminist movement, or women’s liberation, produced additional economic and social changes. Women of all ages and at all levels of society were entering the work force in greater numbers. Most of them still took traditional women’s jobs as public school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. But some women began to enter traditionally male occupations: police work, banking, dentistry, and construction work. Women were asking for equal work, and equal opportunities for promotion. Today the experts generally agree that important changes are taking place in the roles of men and women. Naturally, there are difficulties in adjusting to these transformations. Many people appeal for the equality between men and women with the hope of transforming the traditional roles of men and women. Actually, the gender role in many countries is much better than before.

中国的龙是中国神话和民间故事里传说的生物。龙有许多动物的特征，例如龟、鱼等。但是，大多情况下龙被描绘成长着四只脚的蛇形动物。传统意义上龙象征强大的、幸运的力量，特别是能够控制水、雨、飓风和洪水。龙还能带给人权利，力气和好运。因此，中国的皇帝常常用龙来象征他们的皇权和力量。在中国人的日常语言中，优秀的、超群的人常常被比作龙，而无能的人则被比作虫。许多中国的格言和谚语也都提到龙。

The Education Select Committee has been examining the underachievement of poor white children in England. Their exam results are much worse than disadvantaged black or Asian pupils. The report describes poor white youngsters as “consistently the lowest performing group in the country“. The report—Underachievement in Education by White Working Class Children—identifies this as a “real and persistent“ problem. Poor white children are already lagging behind when they start primary school, and the gap grows wider as they get older. As each school year passes, this gap sees them falling further behind wealthier white pupils and poor children from ethnic minorities. The rising results among poor black and Asian pupils shows improvements can be made. This report holds a mirror up to the situation—it does not attempt to solve the problem, but it makes some suggestions to lessen this underachievement. The report argues that as a particularly low-achieving group, poor white children would have the most to gain from access to outstanding schools and the best teachers. The school need to recruit high-quality teachers who could help these pupils, argues the report. “Schools face a battle for resources and talent, and those serving poor white communities need a better chance of winning,“ it says. There are practical forms of help, says the report, such as allowing time and space for children to do their homework at school, which could mean extending the school day. Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard. 12. Whose exam results are much worse than disadvantaged black or Asian pupils? 13. When does the gap appear? 14. What does the rising results among poor black and Asian pupils show? 15. What should the school do to help the poor white children? The wealthy white children. Children from middle class families. Poor white children. Poor children from ethnic minorities.

Today, I’d like to talk about some of the changes land can undergo, specifically desertification, that’s the process through which land becomes part of a desert. Now a desert is defined as a place that receives a certain maximum amount of rainfall. But you may not know that it usually takes more than just a lack of water to turn productive land into a desert. There are several specific human activities that when combined with a lack of rainfall encourages desertification. For example, over cultivation, growing more crops than soil can support. The soil loses its nutrients, so it needs either to be fertilized or to be left unused for at least a season. But if neither of these things happens, if these nutrients in the soil don’ t get replaced, the damaged soil stops producing. Another cause of desertification is overgrazing. That’s when the grasses and trees and shrubs of an area are expected to feed more animals than they reasonably can. Too many animals eating in the same area will kill the vegetation. And because it’s the roots of this vegetation that hold much of the soil together, when too much of the vegetation dies, the soil erodes. But maybe the most ironic example of human behavior that can lead to desertification is irrigation. It may seem to run counter to common sense to say that introducing water into an area can cause it to become more like a desert But there are plenty of bad irrigation practices that do just that Bringing in too much salty water and then not providing adequate drainage for it will fill the soil with salt, and turn the area into a desert. Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 16 to 19. 16. How is the soil damaged by over cultivation? 17. What is overgrazing? 18. How does overgrazing damage soil? 19. According to the speaker, what is the main problem with irrigation? It receives more nutrients than it can absorb. It becomes oversaturated with water. It loses the ability to support insect life. It loses nutrients that aren ’t replaced.

Nearly two-thirds of businesses in the UK want to【C1】______staff with foreign language skills. French is still the most highly prized language, but Spanish and Mandarin speakers are more in【C2】______than in the past. Katja Hall, deputy director-general of Confederation of British Industry(CBI), said that, given the EU was the UK’ s largest export market, it was no surprise to see European languages so【C3】______valued. “But with China and Latin America seeing solid growth, ambitious firms want the language skills that can【C4】______the path into new markets,“ she said. The 2014 annual education and skills survey by the CBI and Pearson, the educational publisher that owns the Financial Times, found that 41 percent of the 291 companies surveyed across the UK believed knowledge of a foreign language was【C5】______to their business. European languages—French, German and Spanish—still topped the list in【C6】______of desirability, but these were closely followed by Mandarin and Arabic. However, the number of students studying foreign languages has【C7】______in the past decade. Ms Hall said it was unclear whether recent government【C8】______to encourage language learning in schools would have any impact. “It has been a worry to see foreign language study in our schools under pressure with one in five schools having a【C9】______low take-up of languages,“ she said. “Young people considering their future subject choices should be made more【C10】______of the benefits to their careers that can come from studying a foreign language.“ A) slumped B) risen C) initiatives D) highly E) agencies F) demand G) pressure H) accidentally I) aware J) persistently K) harmful L) beneficial M) recruit N) smooth O) terms

Why I Became a Teacher: to Pass on My Love of Literature A) Like lots of people, I never thought I’d be a teacher when I was at school. To be honest 1 only did my training because my husband was on a four-year course and 1 was on a three-year course at Cardiff University so I wanted to do something for one year. I thought doing a teaching qualification would be interesting and might be quite useful. I’m convinced that nothing else I might have done would have given me so much pleasure and satisfaction, or fitted in so well with family life. B) When I retire, in just a few years time, I can look back on a career which made a positive difference to the lives of thousands of children. Few other career choices can be so rewarding, so if you have a love of your subject and want the opportunity to pass that on then teaching can be a great career. C) Anyone going into teaching now will be used to teaching to formal work schemes and observation. I think it has raised standards in the profession but personally I feel the loss in the classroom. I’ve got the confidence of 30 years experience. I’ve seen new approaches come and go(and sometimes even identical “new ideas“ come and go more than once). D) For me, it’s the passion for your subject and interest in the success of your students that matters more than how all the acronyms(首字母缩略词) add up. This is what will make you a good teacher. There’ s still room for individuals but you have to have the confidence and passion for your subject to make it work. E) The major challenge in teaching is time. There’s not enough of it. It’s hard if you’re working full time to cope with the marking and feel that you have enough time to do your job properly. I’ ve worked part time ever since I had children. I officially work three days a week—trot on my two days off I always work, it probably all adds up to what counts as a full week’s work in most other jobs but the pay isn’ t bad so you can work part time and then the job really does fit in with family life. There are shortcuts to save time, and if had to work part time I’d have to use them. But working part time gives me the luxury to be a critical marker. It can take two hours to mark a 3,000 word A level essay, so if you have 16 pupils that’s 32 hours of marking in one week for just one class. F) One of the benefits of being a part-time teacher is that I do have time to mark properly. Sometimes my feedback is almost as long as their essay but 1 really want the kids to do well. One of the best things about teaching is you get to raise children’s aspirations, and to make a difference in their lives. You get visits and emails from your old students to prove it! It’ s great to make the difference, and, as they say, it does make it all worthwhile. G) The core of teaching is the subject and the pupils. We have a lot of NQTs and PGCE students coming to our school and sometimes I must admit to being disappointed when students don’t know their subjects that well. I had an NQT who was teaching Animal Farm and asked me “What’s Marxism?“ —and she’d got a first in her degree so it just goes to show that government initiatives to try and attract those with firsts aren’ t necessarily going work. H) However, lots of people drop out of teaching after a couple of years, it is an exhausting job. So my advice to those just starting out is: I) Don’ t lose your sense of proportion over things that happen in the classroom or in an observation that doesn’t go well. As long as in the bigger picture of things you are connecting with kids and the subject—then don’t get frustrated. Even after 30 years of teaching everyone has fearful days in teaching, when you think: “Can I really do this?“ You’ve got to keep positive; it’s only a problem if you get more bad days than good days. J) Make sure teaching doesn’t overwhelm you. You have to develop strategies especially if you are teaching a subject which requires a lot of marking. So plan things well. Get your pupils to do peer marking, which really can work. If you know you just can’t handle any more marking in a particular week, get pupils to write a speech and then perform it in the next class. You’ ve got to think ahead about times of maximum workload and plan accordingly—ask your more experienced colleagues for advice. K) You’ve got to keep your sense of humour, which is a great way of relieving a situation. I know I became a better teacher when I became a parent. I realised that kids can be so unpleasant sometimes, even your own kids. They don’t mean it; they’re just being kids. It doesn’t mean they hate you or hate your lessons. When you’re a new teacher coming into teaching, especially if you are young, you think of the students as almost your adversaries(对手), until you’ ve got to defeat them. But you’ve got to be careful what you say. You can’t belittle them too much or you can really harm them. L) Love your subject. If you are going to succeed in secondary school teaching, you must love your subject. The kids really know if you do or don’t. M) You have to know your students are individuals, they learn in different ways. You have to be sensitive to that. N) You can’t just teach a formula. 1 do worry about the difference between lip service to what the government say it’ s supposed to be like and what it’ s really like. I do hate the untruthfulness of that and the gulf seems to widen more and more. It feels like what matters most is what’s tested. The trouble is nothing that is really worthwhile, the love of learning, connection with literature, having empathy—these are the things that really make a difference to someone’s life but of course they can’t be tested. Young teachers have to be careful not to get lost in formulas and initiatives. A more experienced teacher will have confidence to respond to kids and to talk about an issue that’ s raised in class that’ s not on the plan. The children will learn so much from that but there’ s no box to tick.