Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 36 to 42.
Writing is arguably the most important invention in human history. The opportunity for human knowledge to build on other knowledge is severely limited without the medium of writing. Not only does writing allow a permanence to human thought but also a complexity and scope to human expression that seem barely possible without it.
The earliest known artifacts that could be considered writing by the loosest definition are the famous and extraordinarily beautiful 20,000-year-old "cave paintings" in southern France and northern Spain. The pictures, mostly of animals but with some human figures, possibly tell some sort of story or may merely be pictures with expressive, magical, or religious purpose. Other assorted pictures have been found antedating the rise of the great civilizations of the Near East, but the earliest artifacts that are clearly writing date from about only 5,500 years ago inMesopotamia.
The earliest system of writing is usually attributed to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia during the end of the fourth millennium b.c. There, officials of such Sumerian city-states as Uruk had developed a system of recording numerals, pictographs, and ideographs on specially prepared clay surfaces.
Although the clay blanks used by the Uruk scribes are universally referred to as tablets, a word with the connotation of flatness, they are actually convex. Individual characters were inscribed in the clay by means of a stylus made of wood, bone, or ivory, with one end blunt and the other pointed. The characters were basically of two kinds. Numerical signs were impressed into the clay; all other signs, pictographs, and ideographs alike, were incised with the pointed end of the stylus. The repertory of characters used by the Uruk scribes was large; it is estimated at no fewer than 1,500 separate signs.
Which of the following terms does NOT refer to something on which early writing was inscribed?
A.Clay surfaces
B.Characters
C.Clay blanks
D.Tablets

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 36 to 42.
Writing is arguably the most important invention in human history. The opportunity for human knowledge to build on other knowledge is severely limited without the medium of writing. Not only does writing allow a permanence to human thought but also a complexity and scope to human expression that seem barely possible without it.
The earliest known artifacts that could be considered writing by the loosest definition are the famous and extraordinarily beautiful 20,000-year-old "cave paintings" in southern France and northern Spain. The pictures, mostly of animals but with some human figures, possibly tell some sort of story or may merely be pictures with expressive, magical, or religious purpose. Other assorted pictures have been found antedating the rise of the great civilizations of the Near East, but the earliest artifacts that are clearly writing date from about only 5,500 years ago inMesopotamia.
The earliest system of writing is usually attributed to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia during the end of the fourth millennium b.c. There, officials of such Sumerian city-states as Uruk had developed a system of recording numerals, pictographs, and ideographs on specially prepared clay surfaces.
Although the clay blanks used by the Uruk scribes are universally referred to as tablets, a word with the connotation of flatness, they are actually convex. Individual characters were inscribed in the clay by means of a stylus made of wood, bone, or ivory, with one end blunt and the other pointed. The characters were basically of two kinds. Numerical signs were impressed into the clay; all other signs, pictographs, and ideographs alike, were incised with the pointed end of the stylus. The repertory of characters used by the Uruk scribes was large; it is estimated at no fewer than 1,500 separate signs.
The phrase "attributed to" is closest in meaning to........................
A.blamed on
B.characterized by
C.credited to
D.replaced by

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 36 to 42.
Writing is arguably the most important invention in human history. The opportunity for human knowledge to build on other knowledge is severely limited without the medium of writing. Not only does writing allow a permanence to human thought but also a complexity and scope to human expression that seem barely possible without it.
The earliest known artifacts that could be considered writing by the loosest definition are the famous and extraordinarily beautiful 20,000-year-old "cave paintings" in southern France and northern Spain. The pictures, mostly of animals but with some human figures, possibly tell some sort of story or may merely be pictures with expressive, magical, or religious purpose. Other assorted pictures have been found antedating the rise of the great civilizations of the Near East, but the earliest artifacts that are clearly writing date from about only 5,500 years ago inMesopotamia.
The earliest system of writing is usually attributed to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia during the end of the fourth millennium b.c. There, officials of such Sumerian city-states as Uruk had developed a system of recording numerals, pictographs, and ideographs on specially prepared clay surfaces.
Although the clay blanks used by the Uruk scribes are universally referred to as tablets, a word with the connotation of flatness, they are actually convex. Individual characters were inscribed in the clay by means of a stylus made of wood, bone, or ivory, with one end blunt and the other pointed. The characters were basically of two kinds. Numerical signs were impressed into the clay; all other signs, pictographs, and ideographs alike, were incised with the pointed end of the stylus. The repertory of characters used by the Uruk scribes was large; it is estimated at no fewer than 1,500 separate signs.
This passage mainly discusses......................
A."cave paintings" as an expressive achievement
B.the Uruk culture in Mesopotamia
C.early writing systems
D.writing instruments of the Uruk scribes

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 35.
'A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie Hunter, a well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's opinion it is essential to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If you aren't telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed an entertainer. 'I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes back to early childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer." So eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher - and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said. 'Never.' 'When I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.'
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is reflected in the love she has for her writing. 'When we have visitors with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie, she'll spend more time with the children." They don't realise that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all the adults have to say before. The children have something new.'
In comparison with children of earlier years, Mollie feels that modern children are:
A.more intelligent
B.better informed
C.less keen to learn
D.less interested in fiction

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 35.
'A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie Hunter, a well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's opinion it is essential to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If you aren't telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed an entertainer. 'I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes back to early childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer." So eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher - and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said. 'Never.' 'When I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.'
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is reflected in the love she has for her writing. 'When we have visitors with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie, she'll spend more time with the children." They don't realise that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all the adults have to say before. The children have something new.'
Mollie’s adult visitors generally discover that.........................
A.she is a very generous person
B.she is interesting company
C.she talks a lot about her work
D.she pays more attention to their children

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 35.
'A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie Hunter, a well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's opinion it is essential to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If you aren't telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed an entertainer. 'I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes back to early childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer." So eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher - and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said. 'Never.' 'When I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.'
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is reflected in the love she has for her writing. 'When we have visitors with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie, she'll spend more time with the children." They don't realise that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all the adults have to say before. The children have something new.'
How does Mollie feel about what has happened to her birthplace?
A.confused
B.ashamed
C.disappointed
D.surprised

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 35.
'A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie Hunter, a well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's opinion it is essential to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If you aren't telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed an entertainer. 'I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes back to early childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer." So eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher - and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said. 'Never.' 'When I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.'
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is reflected in the love she has for her writing. 'When we have visitors with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie, she'll spend more time with the children." They don't realise that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all the adults have to say before. The children have something new.'
What do we learn about Mollie Hunter as a very young child?
A.She didn’t expect to become a writer.
B.She didn’t enjoy writing stories.
C.She didn’t have any particular ambitions.
D.She didn’t respect her teacher’s views.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 35.
'A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie Hunter, a well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's opinion it is essential to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If you aren't telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed an entertainer. 'I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes back to early childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer." So eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher - and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said. 'Never.' 'When I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.'
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is reflected in the love she has for her writing. 'When we have visitors with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie, she'll spend more time with the children." They don't realise that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all the adults have to say before. The children have something new.'
In Mollie Hunter’s opinion, one sign of a poor writer is:
A.lifeless characters
B.complicated ideas
C.the weakness of the description
D.the absence of a story

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.
A.copy
B.remove
C.notice
D.cancel

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.
A.reduction
B.popular
C.romantic
D.financial