In the United States the most popular form of folk dancing has been square-dancing since the earlier days. In those days, men and women worked in groups to build a house or harvest crops. When the work was done, they usually danced merrily and happily in a store or in a farm kitchen.

    Nowadays square-dancing is still performed. A square, which has four sides, is formed by four couples. Each couple stands on one side of the square, the man on the left and the woman on the right. That is to say, one square has eight people and they stand facing the center of the square.

    Large or small numbers of people can dance together. Sometimes as many as 800 or 1,000 people may be dancing all at the same time. 

Costumesare worn by those who do the square-dancing. This makes the dancing more colorful to watch. Men may have colored shirts and western trousers they wear only on special days. Women often wear full skirts of different colors with a pretty blouse. In some country areas, everyone wears their best clothes.

    Today in all parts of the US you will find some schools, clubs, or other groups that are square-dancing for fun. They enjoy it very much.

Most people think that making a film is exciting. In fact, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. Earlier this year, I worked in a new film. It was about a bomb threat on a big British ship. Two hundred people were needed to act as the passengers in the film. I was one of them.

     Before we left, we were required to bring some warm clothes. These were necessary because the ship was going to spend the whole 16 days sailing in bad weather.

     Then the day came and we sailed out of Dover. The boat had on board the film crew, the director, the actors and actresses including Brinksley Meers, who acted the leading role, and us-200 amateur extras.

    People came for different purposes. Some wanted to meet Brinksley Meers in person. Others were curious to see how a film was made. A housewife with her three children came for free holiday and a bit of adventure.

     During the voyage, a lot of people were very seasick. And although the work was very interesting, it was also very hard. We often worked all day on one scene, performing it again and again under the hot lights. In the evenings, there were drinks in the bar, but most people were so tired that they went to bed early. The next day often began at 6:30 in the moming, sometimes with breakfast being filmed.

     When the ship finally returned to port, most people had enjoyed the trip, but were also so tired that they at least needed a week's holiday.

     Answer the following questions:

Reading can be fun, but it can also be time-consuming (taking a long time) if your speed is not as fast as you'd like it to be. An average reading speed can range from 200 to 350 words per minute, but that rate can vary depending on the material and your reading experience. Here are a few tips to help you improve your reading speed.

    Preview（预览） the material you're going to read. Look at main headings, chapters divisions , and other related parts - to develop clues about the structure of the work.

    Adjust（调整） your reading speed as you read the material. Slow down when you need to be sure that you comprehend one section（部分） of the material. Speed up if you are already familiar with or don't need to know other sections,

    Readers can greatly improve their reading speed by taking in several words in the line of text at one time (instead of sounding out each word, or focusing on each letter of the word),    Another way to improve your reading speed is to pay more attention to the key words in the sentences. A significant amount of reading time is wasted on conjunctions, prepositions, or articles (i.e a, an, the, but, and, or, nor, but, etc.).

   Talk about what you've read. Some readers find that by talking about their reading with friends of  fellow students, they are able to effectively synthesize(综合理解） the material. Find a reading spot, where nothing or nobody will disturb your reading.

    Don't reread right away; it will slow you down. If you absolutely don't understand part of the reading selection, go back and review the material later.

Practice. Practice. Practice. The best way to improve your reading speed is to practice reading. Try out some of these techniques(技巧), and then perfect the strategies (策略)that work best for you.

第四部分  书面表达（共两节，满分45分）

第一节  阅读表达（共5小题；每小题3分，满分15分）

    阅读下列短文并回答问题，然后将答案写在相应的位置上。根据下面五个小题的具体要求，简要回答问题。

    I ordered a new consumer product on New Year's Day．The order was so exciting that I felt it was going to enable me to stay organized and stylish．Then I went to the store and made the purchase．They made it pretty difficult because of a new process that had just been put in place．I went to the store with my cash in hand hoping to just give it to someone to get my new product，but I had to work pretty hard to get someone to let me buy it．

    Two weeks later，a new accessory（附件） became available for my product．I decided to go and procure this new accessory on my birthday．However，they didn't have any and nobody could answer my questions，and they only had a number system before you could talk to anyone．So I spent an hour of my birthday sitting around waiting to be told that I couldn't be helped．I'm a customer that just wanted to buy the product，and then when I wanted to keep giving them money for my shiny new product，they still weren't interested．

    The only way I was told to get what I needed was to call someone and they could help．

    I knew it would be an experience that would require much patience，so I waited a week and a half to make that call．Today was the day．I was also reminded today that sometimes things would just be comically bad from beginning to end．

    After two specialists and one hour and twelve minutes，I got the information I needed．

    This terrible experience isn't quite over yet，but it's definitely reached the comical stage．So I'm laughing and thinking about what lesson I should learn from this situation．

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There are a number of special days of the year that are celebrated in different countries. One of the most popular of these, even though it is fairly recent, is Mother’s Day. Mothers have always been highly regarded in all cultures. The Ancient Romans had a festival known as Hilaria, during which children took presents to the temple of the “Mother of the Gods”. The Christian Church adopted this idea and called it Mothering Sunday. However, over the years the custom was gradually forgotten and almost disappeared by the end of the 19^th century.

Born in 1864 in Virginia, USA, Anna Jarvis was a school teacher and believed children should show gratitude to their mothers for all their love and care. Encouraged by a friend, she wrote to thousands of important people---politicians, churchmen, doctors, city officials---and asked them to support her ideas: a special day of the year for thanking mothers.

In 1910 the Governor of West Virginia introduced Mother’s Day into the state. The date chosen was May 10---the second Sunday in May, which is still observed in America today. This date was chosen because May 10 was the date on which in 1908 Anna Jarvis’s mother died. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made May 10 the official date for Mother’s Day throughout the United States.

Soon there was a Mother’s Day International Association and the custom began to be adopted in many countries of the world.

Anna Jarvis, a sad and disillusioned woman died in 1948. The custom she had worked so hard to establish and which had become almost universal had lost its original purpose. It had been taken over by business. As with Christmas, the giving of presents and the sending of cards had become a multi-million-dollar industry. (296words)

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        A farming game becomes popular on the Internet as users get up in the morning to steal crops and fruit from their friends’ farms and become the kings of virtual (虚拟的) farming.

      Just like the farm game “kaixin 001” in Chinese. Users can plant crops, and raise chickens and sheep, and the harvest can be sold and exchanged for experience points to increase the attraction. Players can sneak into (潜入) their friends’ farms and steal crops. The more practiced a user gets in planting crops, the more virtual money he or she can make. That makes it much more fun than just killing time on the Internet.

     Now more city white collars, young office ladies in particular, are going online to live a country life. ________ that they set the alarm for an early rise every day, when they start up the computer and go farming. If they overslept, their fields would turn into a tourist farm where anyone takes whatever he or she wants. They can use a virtual network to plant, water crops, get rid of pests, harvest and sell their crops, and they can raise chickens and cows, and buy dogs to guard the farm. The whole process is much more interesting than electronic chickens, and seeing the results of their own hard work pile in the storage offers some kind of satisfaction in an otherwise boring daily life.

     Compared with wasting some time on line, the game is more interesting. 

I ordered a new consumer product on New Year's Day．The order was so exciting that I felt it was going to enable me to stay organized and stylish．Then I went to the store and made the purchase．They made it pretty difficult because of a new process that had just been put in place．I went to the store with my cash in hand hoping to just give it to someone to get my new product，but I had to work pretty hard to get someone to let me buy it．

Two weeks later，a new accessory（附件） became available for my product．I decided to go and procure this new accessory on my birthday．However，they didn't have any and nobody could answer my questions，and they only had a number system before you could talk to anyone．So I spent an hour of my birthday sitting around waiting to be told that I couldn't be helped．I'm a customer that just wanted to buy the product，and then when I wanted to keep giving them money for my shiny new product，they still weren't interested．

    The only way I was told to get what I needed was to call someone and they could help．

    I knew it would be an experience that would require much patience，so I waited a week and a half to make that call．Today was the day．I was also reminded today that sometimes things would just be comically bad from beginning to end．

    After two specialists and one hour and twelve minutes，I got the information I needed．

    This terrible experience isn't quite over yet，but it's definitely reached the comical stage．So I'm laughing and thinking about what lesson I should learn from this situation．

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Most people think that making a film is exciting. In fact, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Earlier this year, I worked in a new film. It was about a bomb threat on a big British ship. Two hundred people were needed to act as the passengers in the film. I was one of them.

  Before we left, we were wanted to bring some warm clothes. These were necessary because the ship was going to spend the whole 16 days sailing in bad weather.

  Then the day came and we sailed out of Dover. The boat had on board the film crew, the director, the actors and actresses including Brinksley Meers, who acted the leading role, and us-200 amateur(业余的) extras.

  People came for different purposes. Some wanted to meet Brinksley Meers in person. Others were curious to see how a film was made. A housewife with her three children came for free holiday and a bit of adventure.

  During the voyage, a lot of people were very seasick. And although the work was very interesting, it was also very hard. We often worked all day on one scene, performing it again and again under the hot lights. In the evenings, there were drinks in the bar, but most people were so tired that they went to bed early. The next day often began at 6: 30 in the morning, sometimes with breakfast being filmed.

  When the ship finally returned to port, most people had enjoyed the trip, but were also so tired that they at least needed a week’s holiday. Answer the following questions:

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