基础英语写作期末考试及其答案

Part I. Fill in the blanks below with the right word in brackets, change the form where necessary. (20%)

1. The whole region was struck by an (economic, economical) disaster.

2. We must pursue this matter (farther, further).

3. The state attorney said that the man would be (persecuted,

prosecuted).

4. Jill is the girl (who/whom) I think went up the hill.

5. The Red Cross will accept (whomever/whoever) volunteers.

6. The trees stand nearly barren; their leaves (lay/lie) on the

ground.

7. It is important that he (finds/find) a suitable job.

8. Chinese food is (indescribable/indescribably) delicious.

9. He is unhappy with an (occasional/occasionally)

buzzing sound in the new piano.

10. Walk (steady/steadily) along the edge of the wall.

11. The young Mozart had a (terrible/terribly) precocious

imagination.

12. The sky turned (dark/darkly) in the afternoon.

13. Sixty hours the amount of work time I contracted for. (be)

14. Corn bread and milk a popular breakfast in the rural South. (be)

15. He believe that athletics school morale.(improve)

16. He is one of the students who to attend the speech contest.

(plan)

17. Each of the candidates for the position exceptionally high

qualifications. (have)

18. That racket is bad enough to make Aunt Ella’s eyebrows . (raise,

rise)

19. Put the determiners in the brackets in the proper order.

_______________________

years ( the, few, all, last)

20. Arrange the adjectives in the brackets correctly

_____________________________

diamonds (large, lovely, round, shining)

Part II. Note-Writing (20%)

Write a note of about 50-60 words based on the following situation:

Last night you had to attend a class meeting, but for personal reasons you cannot. Write a short note of apology to your class monitor, Tom..

Part III. Write a précis for the following passage. (60%)

I don’t know why so many people have it in for Microsoft. Jealousy, I guess. After all, it’s not many people who can persuade you buy something that’s not working properly, and then charge you in advance for something that may or may not be better.

Many of you probably know that July 31 was the final deadline for Microsoft’s volume customers to pay for the company’s new subscription-based way of selling software. I won’t bore you with the details of the new licensing program, called Licensing 6.0. It’ll be enough just to say it has forced companies and governments all over the world to rethink their software budgets and whether they can truly afford to keep buying Microsoft server, operating-system and office-suite software. Or, more to their terror, whether they can afford not to.

The fact is like this: Software manufacturers rely on selling new versions of their programs to get revenue. But this is unpredictable: How can you be sure everyone is going to Office 97 suite, for example, meaning they not only avoided the Office2000 upgrade, but also Office XP.

In software terms, they’re like those annoying tribes that people keep discovering. These tribes seem happy and content wandering around in bits of clothes made of leaves, and drinking their simple but strong tree-sap wine, carefully ignorant of the benefits of air-conditioning , cable TV , etc.

So Microsoft’s come up with a novel solution that ensures that these slow-mover—the Office 97 users, not the annoying tribes, -- buy upgrades. This guarantees the company’s revenues to remain nice and steady.

Under these new licensing rules, a volume customer is encouraged to subscribe to software, rather than purchasing it immediately. On the plus side he’ll get all the fixes, support, and new versions that come out during the subscription period, as well as being able to spread out his costs. On the downside he won’t actually own the software he’s been using, and won’t be guaranteed an updated version unless it comes out during the subscription period. This program, ironically, is called Software Assurance, which not only sounds like something from persistent salesmen, but also seems to be a misused name, due to the lack of assurance it offers.

Unsurprisingly, here’re some serious complaints going on, which has forced Microsoft to extend the deadline twice. Governments, with strict software budgets, are actively looking elsewhere. Peru is contemplating a law requiring all public institutions to switch to software that can be adapted and rewritten freely without copyright restriction. And Norway last month allowed its contracts with Microsoft to expire, opening the door for cheaper alternatives.

What should you do? Personally, I’d prefer leaf skirts: there’s no compelling reason to upgrade to Office 2000 or XP. The added features you’re paying for with each upgrade are rarely must-have items; in most cases they’re either decorative or actually making using the software harder. In nearly all cases they’re rarely used and