Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A,B,C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)
As many people hit middle age, they often start to notice that their memory and mental clarity are not what they used to be. We suddenly can’t remember ___1___ we put the keys just a moment ago, or an old acquaintance’s name, or the name of an old band we used to love. As the brain ___2___, we refer to these occurrences as “senior moments.” ___3___ seemingly innocent, this loss of mental focus can potentially have a (n) ___4___ impact on our professional, social, and personal ___5___.
Neuroscientists, experts who study the nervous system, are increasingly showing that there’s actually a lot that can be done. It ___6___ out that the brain needs exercise in much the same way our muscles do, and the right mental ___7___ can significantly improve our basic cognitive ___8___. Thinking is essentially a ___9___ of making connections in the brain. To a certain extent, our ability to ___10___ in making the connections that drive intelli
gence is inherited. ___11___, because these connections are made through effort and practice, scientists believe that intelligence can expand and fluctuate ___12___ mental effort.
Now, a new Web-based company has taken it a step ___13___ and developed the first “brain training program” designed to actually help people improve and regain their mental ___14___.
The Web-based program ___15___ you to systematically improve your memory and attention skills. The program keeps ___16___ of your progress and provides detailed feedback ___17___ your performance and improvement. Most importantly, it ___18___modifies and enhances the games you play to ___19___ on the strengths you are developing—much like a(n) ___20___exercise routine requires you to increase resistance and vary your muscle use.
1. [A]where [B]when [C]that [D]why
2. [A]improves [B]fades [C]recovers [D]collapses
3. [A]If [B]Unless [C]Once [D]While
4. [A]uneven [B]limited [C]damaging [D]obscure
5. [A]wellbeing [B]environment [C]relationship [D]outlook
6. [A]turns [B]finds [C]points [D]figures
7. [A]roundabouts [B]responses [C]workouts [D]associations
8. [A]genre [B]functions [C]circumstances [D]criterion
9. [A]channel [B]condition [C]sequence [D]process
10. [A]persist [B]believe [C]excel [D]feature
11. [A] Therefore [B] Moreover [C] Otherwise [D] However
12. [A]according to [B]regardless of [C]apart from [D]instead of
13. [A]back [B]further [C]aside [D]around
14. [A]sharpness [B]stability [C]framework [D]flexibility
15. [A]forces [B]reminds [C]hurries [D]allows
16. [A]hold [B]track [C]order [D]pace
17. [A]to [B]with [C]for [D]on
18. [A]irregularly [B]habitually [C]constantly [D]unusually
19. [A]carry [B]put [C]build [D]take
20. [A]risky [B]effective [C]idle [D]familiar
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Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)
Text 1
In order to “change lives for the better” and reduce “dependency” George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the “upfront work search” scheme. Only if the jobless arrive at the jobcentre with a CV, register for online job search, and start looking for work will they be eligible for benefit and then they should report weekly rather than fortnightly. What could be more reasonable?
More apparent reasonableness followed. There will now be a seven-day wait for the jobseeker’s allowance. “Those first few days should be spent looking for work, not looking to sign on.” he claimed. “We’re doing these things because we know they help people stay off benefits and help those on benefits get into work faster.” Help? Really? On first hearing, this was the socially concerned chancellor, trying to change lives for the better, complete with “reforms” to an obviously indulgent system that demands too little effort fro
m the newly unemployed to find work, and subsidises laziness. What motivated him, we were to understand, was his zeal for “fundamental fairness”— protecting the taxpayer, controlling spending and ensuring that only the most deserving claimants received their benefits.
Losing a job is hurting: you don’t skip down to the jobcentre with a song in your heart, delighted at the prospect of doubling your income from the generous state. It is financially terrifying, psychologically embarrassing and you know that support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you are now excluded from the work environment that offers purpose and structure in your life. Worse, the crucial income to feed yourself and your family and pay the bills has disappeared. Ask anyone newly unemployed what they want and the answer is always: a job.
But in Osborneland, your first instinct is to fall into dependency — permanent dependency if you can get it — supported by a state only too ready to indulge your falsehood. It is as t
hough 20 years of ever-tougher reforms of the job search and benefit administration system never happened. The principle of British welfare is no longer that you can insure yourself against the risk of unemployment and receive unconditional payments if the disaster happens. Even the very phrase “jobseeker’s allowance” — invented in 1996 — is about redefining the unemployed as a “jobseeker” who had no mandatory right to a benefit he or she has earned through making national insurance contributions. Instead, the claimant receives a time-limited “allowance,” conditional on actively seeking a job; no entitlement and no insurance, at ￡71.70 a week, one of the least generous in the EU.

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