Of course, not all Chinese art is temporary ? some of it has been around for a very long time! Near the city of Xi’an, I visited the amazing terracotta warriors, or soldiers. In 200 BC, 8,000 statues of soldiers were made by sculptors out of a material called terracotta. They are as big as real people and they all have different faces. An important king had the statues produced to protect his body after he died. They stayed under the ground with the dead king for over 2,000 years, until they were discovered by a farmer in 1974.

At the China Art Museum, in Shanghai, I saw wonderful 16th-century Chinese paintings of tall mountains, trees and cliffs. The paintings were beautiful, but they didn’t look very realistic to me at the time. ‘Mountains aren’t like that,’ I thought. But that was before the last stop on my trip: the mountains of Zhangjiajie National Park.

These mountains were used by film director James Cameron in his sci-fi film Avatar because they look like something from another planet. On my last weekend in China, I took a cable car up into the mountains there. Trees grew on the sides of hundred-metre cliffs, and strange towers of rock appeared out of the morning fog. It looked just like the pictures in the China Art Museum. For a moment, I felt like I was inside a Chinese painting!

8. According to the passage, what is true about the people in Beihai Park? A. They introduced themselves to the writer. B. Some of them were writing graffiti (涂鸦). C. Their art didn’t last very long. D. They use paint and big brushes.

9. What does the author say about the ice festival in Harbin? A. The sculptures don’t last long. B. It’s only popular with local people. C. It’s easy to make sculptures out of ice.

D. The winter weather both helps and causes problems.

10. What is true about the terracotta soldiers of Xi’an according to the passage? A. They all look exactly the same. B. Nobody saw them for a long time. C. Many people died making them. D. They are bigger than real people.

11. Which statement describes the author’s feelings about Chinese art?

A. She particularly liked Chinese paintings made long time ago. B. She was impressed by different types of Chinese art. C. She did not think it was very realistic. D. She was surprised that it was so old. 【答案】8. C 9. D 10. B 11. B

D

Daily physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. For this reason, many architects and designers are working to create buildings that encourage people to make exercise a part of their ordinary routine. The movement to promote healthy activity through architecture is called active design. It began in 1998 as part of a university public health program, and it has since gained popularity in cities around the world. Active design uses a number of techniques to encourage the occupants of a building to be more active.

One of the most important strategies of active design is inspiring people to make walking part of their routine. A particularly successful tool for promoting walking is the skip-stop elevator. These elevators stop only on every second or third floor, leaving riders to take the stairs in order to reach their destination. Another strategy of active design is to make stairs more pleasant and inviting. Instead of creating dark stairwells that are located in isolated parts of buildings, active design uses well-lit and centrally placed stairs to encourage more foot traffic. Skip-stop elevators and appealing stair design are both effective tools of active design because they offer incentive and opportunity for exercise. In fact, researchers studying a building that employs both skip-stop elevators and more attractive stair design said that 70 percent of building occupants reported using the stairs every day.

Active design encourages physical activity using not only the interior features of a building, but the relationship between a building and its surroundings as well. A building that employs active design may integrate outdoor space in order to make the environment more engaging and promote physical activity. Some elements that architects use to incorporate the exterior with the interior are glass walls, interior gardens or park spaces, and courtyards with open ceilings, all of which de-emphasize the boundaries between inside and outside. These elements make the building more physically and mentally invigorating. Similarly, by increasing the number of entrances and exits to a building, architects can help keep a building’s users interested in their surroundings by providing a variety of routes for them to use. If people continue to be

stimulated by new sights or experiences, they are less likely to choose the quickest and easiest path to their destination and may instead choose a more physically challenging route. 12. What does the underlined word “incentive” in paragraph 2 mean? A. requirement B. encouragement C. technique D. assistance

13. Why does the author discuss dark stairwells in paragraph 2?

A. To demonstrate the differences between elevator and stairwell design. B. To describe one advantage of using skip-stop elevators in buildings. C. To make a point about why people don’t use the stairs often. D. To argue that skip-stop elevators may lead to design failures.

14. Which of the following is NOT a way that architects weaken the boundary between indoor and outdoor spaces?

A. Creating more routes for entering and exiting. B. Building gardens inside the building. C. Creating spaces with open ceilings. D. Using see-through materials.

15. How does paragraph 2 relate to paragraph 3 in the passage? A. Para 2 describes an early model of a design discussed in para 3. B. Para 3 argues about the effectiveness of the technique from para 2. C. Para 3 introduces a different strategy than the one discussed in para 2. D. Para 2 explains a technique, and para 3 gives examples of how it is used. 【答案】12. B 13. C 14. A 15. C 第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Identical twins are born when an egg divides into two, resulting in the birth of two children with identical genes. _____16_____ Some believe, however, that there is also a close connection between twins in the way they think, not just in the way they look. Twins finish each other’s sentences, and share the same tastes in clothes or music. Some have argued that identical twins have mysterious, even psychic, powers.

Although many identical twins claim to know what the other is thinking, there is no evidence to suggest that this is because of special powers. _____17_____ Most of us have met up with a

brother or sister, or close friend, and immediately asked, “What’s wrong?” because we have unconsciously recognized, in their facial expression, that they are upset in some way. Signs we would miss in a stranger’s behavior are instantly obvious in the way those close to us act. It is hardly surprising that twins notice the way their brother or sister’s facial expressions or body language gives away how they feel. Indeed, the closeness of their bond is likely to improve this ability over the years.

The media is full of stories in which a twin senses her brother or sister to be in trouble. _____18_____ Damien Croft developed a bad headache one evening and, concerned, felt the need to phone his brother to check if everything was OK. When there was no reply, he drove to his brother’s home, only to find him unconscious, having had an epileptic fit (癫痫症) and fallen from a ladder while decorating. On the face of it, his sixth sense had saved the day. _____19_____ Damien knew his brother was decorating, and knew that he was prone to epileptic fits. Subconsciously concerned, he had just imagined the worst-case situation. _____20_____ A. We all know such twins are often very similar in appearance. B. The fact that something awful had happened was only a coincidence.

C. In contrast, there are many other stories which can be more easily explained. D. In truth, of course, the events might also be explained in more ordinary terms.

E. Recent studies show the reasons of all those cases of mysterious happenings between identical twins.

F. In a recent, widely-reported case, for example, a young man survived a horrific fall thanks to a feeling his twin is supposed to have had.

G. A more believable explanation is that, like any pair of people who have grown up together, they are just good at understanding the thought processes behind what their twin does. 【答案】16. A 17. G 18. F 19. D 20. B

第三部分语言知识运用（共两节，满分45分） 第一节（共20小题：每小題丨.5分，满分30分〉

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

A product successful at home does not always guarantee that it will do well abroad. More than one company has failed to consider that, ____21____ the price is reasonable, local consumers will