英语等级考试《PETS三级》考前点题卷二

Part A
Directions:
Read the following two texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
Text 1
Foxes and farmers have never got on well. These small dog-like animals have long been accused of killing farm animals. They are officially classified as harmful and farmers try to keep their numbers down by shooting or poisoning them.
Farmers can also call on the services of their local hunt to control the fox population. Hunting consists of pursuing a fox across the countryside, with a group of specially trained dogs, followed by men and women riding horses. When the dogs eventually catch the fox they kill it or a hunter shoots it.
People who take part in hunting think of it as a sport, they wear a special uniform of red coats and white trousers, and follow strict codes of behavior. But owning a horse and hunting regularly is expensive, so most hunters are wealthy.
It is estimated that up to 100,000 people watch or take part in fox hunting.
But over the last couple of decades the number of people opposed to fox hunting, because they think it is brutal (残酷的) , has risen sharply. Nowadays it is rare for a hunt to pass off without some kind of confrontation (冲突) between hunters and hunt saboteurs (阻拦者). Sometimes these incidents lead to violence, but mostly saboteurs interfere with the hunt by misleading riders and disturbing the trail of the fox’s smell, which the dogs follow.
Noisy confrontations between hunters and saboteurs have become so common that they are almost as much a part of hunting as the pursuit of foxes itself. But this year supporters of fox hunting face a much bigger threat to their sport. A Labor Party Member of the Parliament, Mike Foster, is trying to get Parliament to approve a new law which will make the hunting of wild animals with dogs illegal. If the law is passed, wild animals like foxes will be protected under the ban in Britain.

Text 2
SMS (Short Message Service) gradually becomes the main service for cell phone users for its great charming. In addition, the development of mobile communications technology and service has created favorable condition for SMS. For example, MMS, multi-media messaging service, is a new type of message service on the basis of SMS. It allows transmission of multi-media messages between cell phone and computer, as well as between cell phones. Communication with SMS is quite convenient. You can write a message after carefully thinking what you want to say with many words without worrying about money. Actually, SMS enjoys the absolute majority utilization among mobile service. In China, the number of short message transmitted is 2,200 billion in 2003. People, however, feel angry and anxious sometimes while enjoying SMS. More and more rubbish short messages that contain such content as erotic, gambling, or advertising are sent to cell phone users, which seriously violated the user’s privacy. Because the sender of these rubbish short messages do not take into account whether people need them or not, and do not get the permission from users to transmit these rubbish short messages to them.
As we know, everyone has the right to communication freely with other people, and the right to refuse communication with people they don’t like to. But these rights were not guaranteed in SMS. Users do not receive rubbish short messages on a voluntary basis. If you fell angry and disgusted with some rubbish message to your cell phone, and do not want to see it again, that means such message is in contradiction with your wish, and violates your privacy. MMS also promote the transmission of unhealthy information on the Internet from computer to cell phone, which must ex- tend the scope and influence of rubbish short message.
The rapid development of mobile communications may suffer a lot if there is no change in the way of transmitting SMS. More and more users of cell phone are disturbed by rubbish short messages, and their privacy is violated by mobile communications service, which is also not a benefit for the development of mobile communications service.

Part B
Directions:
Read the texts from an article in which five people talked about smoking. For questions 36 to 40, match the name of each person to one of the statements (A to G) given below. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
Hadley:
If you smoke and you still don’t believe that there’s a definite link between smoking and bronchial troubles, heart disease and lung cancer, then you are certainly deceiving yourself. Just have a look at those people in hospital with these diseases and count how many of them do not smoke, and then you may be surprised at the number. Even these few people might be passive smokers without realizing it.
Randy:
Tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. It is almost like a tax on our daily bread. In tax revenue alone, the government of Britain collects enough from smokers to pay for its entire educational facilities. So while the authorities point out ever so carefully that smoking may be harmful, it doesn’t do to shout too loudly about it.
Sampson:
The advertising of tobacco is one of the problems. We are never shown pictures of real smokers coughing up their lungs early in the morning. That would never do. The advertisements always depict handsome, clean-shaven young men. They suggest it is manly to smoke, even positively healthy! Smoking is associated with the great open air life, with beautiful girls, true love and togetherness. What utter nonsense!
Rowley :
Of course tobacco can help government to raise money. However, while money is eagerly collected in vast sums with one hand, it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. Enormous amounts are spent on cancer research and on efforts to cure people suffering from the disease. Countless valuable lives are lost. In the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would be much better off if smoking were banned altogether.
Bernice:
Smoking can provide constant consolation. When I feel worried or nervous, I just get a cigarette and everything seems to get right. After a day’s hard work, the thing I want to do most is smoking. It can be even better than a cup of coffee. It is so enjoyable and relaxing that it relieves stresses of every day life. So why bother to ban it and take the pleasure from us.
Now match each of the persons (61 to 65) to the appropriate statement.
Note: there are two extra statements.
Statements

Part C
Directions:
Read the following texts from which five sentences have been removed. Choose from the sentences A—G the most suitable one to fill each numbered gap in the text (41—45). There are TWO extra sentences that you do not need to use. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
Humor and laughter are good for us. There is increasing evidence that they can heal us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In fact every system of the body responds to laughter in some positive, healing way. So how can we get more laughter into our lives? (41)______ Psychologist and author, Steve Wilson, has some answers.
Many people believe that we are born with a sense of humor. They think, “either you’ve got it, or you don’t.” Dr. Wilson points out that this is false. (42)______
The parts of the brain and central nervous system that control laughing and smiling are mature at birth. (43)______ (After all, when a baby laughs, we don’t rush over and say, “That kid has a great sense of humor!”) A sense of humor is something that you can develop over a lifetime.
Sometimes people think that they don’t have a good sense of humor because they are not good joke tellers. Dr. Wilson reminds us that telling jokes is only one of many ways to express humor. (44)______ Then we will make others laugh, too.
A person who has a true sense of humor is willing and able to see the funny side of everyday life. One of the best definitions of a sense of humor is “the ability to see the non serious element in a situation.” Consider this sign from a story window:“Any faulty merchandise will be cheerfully replaced with merchandise of equal quality.” The store manager probably placed the sign in the window to impress customers with the store’s excellent service. (45)______ As Dr. Wilson says, “a good sense of humor means that you don’t have to be funny: you just have to see what’s funny.”

Part D
Directions:
Read the following texts from which 10 words have been removed. Choose from the words A—O the most suitable one to fill each numbered gap in the text (46—55). There are FIVE extra words that you do not need to use. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
The great ship, Titanic, sailed for New York from Southampton on April 10th, 1912. At the time, she was not only the largest ship that had ever been built, but was regarded as (46)______, for she had sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these were (47)______, she would still be able to float. The tragic sinking of this great liner will always be remembered, for she went down on her first (48)______ with heavy loss of life.
Four days after setting out, while the Titanic was sailing across the icy water of the North Atlantic, huge iceberg was suddenly (49)______ by a lookout. After the alarm had been given, the great ship turned (50)______ to avoid a direct collision. The Titanic turned just in time, narrowly missing the immense wall of ice which rose over 100 feet out of the water beside her. Suddenly, there was a slight (51)______ sound from below, and the captain went down to see what had happened. The noise had been so (52)______ that no one thought that the ship had been damaged. Below, the captain realized to his (53)______ that the Titanic was sinking rapidly, for five of her sixteen watertight compartments had already been flooded! The order to (54)______ ship was given and hundreds of people (55)______ into the icy water. As there were not enough lifeboats for everybody,1,500 lives were lost.