Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
A)recall
B)mistake
C)active
D)risk
E)adequate
F)temporarily
G)disturb
H)essential
I)concentrate
J)regular
K)evidence
L)rarely
M)expand
N)awkward
O)purchase
Answer Sheet 2 · 26-35
Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
The Quiet Comeback of City Cycling
A)Fifty years ago, the bicycle seemed destined to disappear from big cities. As incomes rose, families bought cars, roads were widened, and planners treated cycling as an outdated habit of the poor. In many cities, bicycle lanes were removed to make room for parking spaces, and the number of daily riders fell year after year.
B)Today the picture looks very different. From Paris to Bogota, city governments are spending heavily on cycling. They are painting new bike lanes, building bicycle parking garages, and launching public bike-sharing programs. Officials who once measured progress by the speed of car traffic now compete to be named the most bicycle-friendly city in their region.
C)Several forces lie behind this change. The most obvious one is traffic congestion. In many large cities, the average car now moves more slowly during rush hour than a bicycle does. When a fifteen-kilometer drive takes an hour, pedaling stops looking like a sacrifice and starts looking like a shortcut.
D)Health concerns have also played an important role. Doctors have long warned that modern city dwellers sit too much and move too little. Studies tracking thousands of commuters found that people who cycle to work have a significantly lower risk of heart disease and report better moods than those who drive. For governments facing rising medical costs, every new cyclist represents a small saving.
E)Environmental pressure adds further weight. Transport is among the largest sources of carbon emissions in urban areas, and replacing short car trips with bicycle trips is one of the cheapest ways to cut them. Since nearly half of all car journeys in cities are shorter than five kilometers, the potential for substitution is enormous.
F)Technology has removed one of cycling's oldest barriers: sweat and effort. Electric bicycles allow older riders and people with long commutes to travel at a steady twenty-five kilometers per hour without arriving exhausted. In several European countries, e-bikes now outsell ordinary bicycles, bringing groups into cycling that traditional bikes never reached.
G)The bike-sharing model has changed behavior as well. Because shared bicycles can be picked up and dropped off almost anywhere, people no longer worry about theft, storage or maintenance. A commuter can ride to a meeting, leave the bike, and take the subway home if it rains. This flexibility persuaded many people to try cycling for the first time in decades.
H)The comeback, however, is far from smooth. Safety remains the biggest worry that keeps potential riders away. Surveys repeatedly show that the fear of riding next to fast car traffic, rather than laziness, is the main reason people give for not cycling. Cities that only paint a white line on a busy road see little growth in ridership.
I)The experience of the Dutch city of Utrecht offers a lesson. Instead of scattered painted lanes, it built a connected network of paths physically separated from cars, along with the world's largest bicycle parking garage at its railway station. Cycling now accounts for about half of all trips in the city center, and shops along the new routes report more customers, not fewer.
J)Critics argue that bicycle investment mainly serves young professionals and ignores suburban families who have no choice but to drive. Supporters respond that good cycling networks actually free up road space for those who genuinely need to drive, and that e-bikes are extending the practical range of cycling far into the suburbs.
K)Whatever the debate, the direction of change seems clear. The bicycle, once dismissed as a relic of the past, is being redesigned, subsidized and celebrated as a serious answer to some of the hardest problems modern cities face. The question is no longer whether cycling will return, but how fast cities can rebuild themselves to welcome it.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
According to a report released last month, average test scores at the school have risen by eight percent since the ban took effect, with the biggest gains among students who had previously performed worst. Teachers say the change in classrooms is even more striking than the numbers suggest. Discussions last longer, more hands go up, and students no longer rush to check their screens the moment a lesson slows down.
The findings match a growing body of research on what psychologists call continuous partial attention, a state in which the mind constantly monitors a device for new messages even when the device is out of sight. In laboratory studies, students who simply placed their phones face down on the desk performed worse on memory tasks than those whose phones were in another room. The mere presence of the device, researchers argue, quietly drains mental energy that could be used for learning.
Not everyone is convinced that bans are the answer. Some educators point out that smartphones can be powerful learning tools when used properly, and that forbidding them teaches students nothing about self-control. They argue that schools should train students to manage their attention rather than simply remove the temptation. Supporters of the ban respond that expecting teenagers to resist apps designed by teams of engineers to capture attention is unrealistic, just as we do not expect them to resist junk food placed on every desk.
What both sides share is a recognition that attention has become one of the scarcest resources in education. However schools choose to protect it, ignoring the problem no longer seems to be an option.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Stories like hers explain the rise of the right-to-repair movement, which demands that manufacturers make spare parts, tools and repair information available to consumers and independent shops. Supporters argue that the current system is wasteful by design. Many modern products are built with glued-in batteries and special screws, making even simple repairs difficult. Some companies also void the warranty if a device has been opened by anyone outside their official service network.
The economic argument for repair is straightforward. Independent studies estimate that households could save hundreds of dollars a year if repairing small appliances and electronics were practical. Repair also creates local jobs: fixing devices requires skilled workers in every town, while manufacturing is concentrated in a few distant factories. The environmental case may be even stronger, since producing a single new smartphone generates far more carbon emissions than years of using an old one.
Manufacturers reply that repair restrictions protect consumers, not profits. Untrained repairers, they say, may damage batteries and cause fires, and opening a device can expose personal data. Critics find these claims exaggerated, noting that the same companies happily sell repair services themselves at high prices.
Lawmakers have started to act. Several countries and states have passed laws requiring manufacturers to supply parts and manuals for common household products, and some now require a repairability score on the package, telling buyers how easy a product is to fix before they pay. Early evidence suggests the scores are changing behavior: products with poor ratings have begun losing market share, and several major brands have quietly redesigned their goods to be easier to open.