2013年二级起点第二学期口语考试题目

20132013 年二级起点第二学期口语考试题目年二级起点第二学期口语考试题目 1 Task I Paragraph Reading 21st Directions Read aloud the following paragraphs Please pay attention to your pronunciation and intonation 1 I threw Mikey s note into a desk drawer along with dozens of other notes While my classes took a test I decided to read all the notes I d only glanced at before I made two piles one for the genuine ones written by mothers the other for forgeries The second was the larger pile with writing that ranged from imaginative to lunatic I was having an epiphany Isn t it remarkable I thought how the students whined and said it was hard putting 200 words together on any subject But when they forged excuse notes they were brilliant The notes I had could be turned into an anthology of Great American Excuses They were samples of talent never mentioned in song story or study 2 My heart sank as the principal entered along with the superintendent of schools Neither acknowledged me They walked up and down peering at papers The superintendent picked one up showed it to the principal The superintendent frowned The principal pursed his lips On their way out the principal said the superintendent would like to see me Here it comes I thought The reckoning The principal was sitting at his desk the superintendent was standing Come in said the superintendent I just want to tell you that that lesson that project whatever the hell you were doing was excellent Those kids were writing on the college level 3 Baer s good friend Ruth Henrich took the lead That seemed natural Henrich then 58 and Baer both worked in publishing and lived in the same duplex Though busy in her job as an associate managing editor at Henrich took Baer to doctors appointments and helped her deal with all the aspects of life that were becoming increasingly mysterious to her answering machines TV controls and even phone numbers After Henrich sent out an e mail request a group of volunteers signed up to ferry Baer back and forth to radiation therapy Others in Baer s circle offered up particular talents A nurse friend helped Baer figure out how to get what she was due from Social Security and her disability insurance an attorney pal helped Baer with her will a buddy who was an accountant took over her bills when she could no longer manage them 4Unmarried women are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in America and increasing numbers of men are remaining single too experts are concerned about how caregiving will be managed for both groups as they age If the experience of Baer s friends is a guide the Internet will play a role It s already making it possible to create communities of caregivers who may have only one thing in common the person who needs their help On personal care pages set up through services such as Lotsa Helping Hands friends and family members can post a list of tasks that need to be done volunteer to do them and keep updated on the person s condition People living in the West in societies that we describe as Western or as the free world may be educated in many different ways but they will all emerge with an idea about themselves that goes something like this I am a citizen of a free society and that means I am an individual making individual choices My mind is my own my opinions are chosen by me I am free to do as I will and at the worst the pressures on me are economic that is to say I may be too poor to do as I want This set of ideas may sound something like a caricature but it is not so far off how we see ourselves It is a portrait that may not have been acquired consciously but is part of a general atmosphere or set of assumptions that influence our ideas about ourselves The fact is that we all live our lives in groups the family work groups social religious and political groups Very few people indeed are happy as solitaries and they tend to be seen by their neighbors as peculiar or selfish or worse Most people cannot stand being alone for long They are always seeking groups to belong to and if one group dissolves they look for another We are group animals still and there is nothing wrong with that But what is dangerous is not the belonging to a group or groups but not understanding the social laws that govern groups and govern us This mechanism of obedience to the group does not only mean obedience or submission to a small group or one that is sharply determined like a religion or political party It means too conforming to those large vague ill defined collections of people who may never think of themselves as having a collective mind because they are aware of differences of opinion but which to people from outside from another culture seem very minor The underlying assumptions and assertions that govern the group are never discussed never challenged probably never noticed the main one being precisely this that it is a group mind intensely resistant to change equipped with sacred assumptions about which there can be no discussion He is the most famous businessman in the world Much has been written about how he dominated the revolution in personal computing and is now prepared to turn Microsoft into a media and Internet giant But we know little about him as a person What beliefs and values drive this man who as much as anyone will determine the way we look not only at computers but at ourselves and our world Here s an intimate look at one of the most important minds and personalities of our era A lot of computer companies have concluded the same In the 21 years since he dropped out of Harvard7 to start Microsoft William Henry Gates III 41 has beat competitors in the world of desktop operating systems and application software Now he is attempting the daring goal of expanding Microsoft from a software company into a media and content company In the process he has amassed a fortune worth as of last Friday 23 9 billion The 88 rise in Microsoft stock in 1996 meant he made on paper more than 10 9 billion or about 30 million a day That makes him the world s richest person by far But he s more than that He has become the Edison and Ford of our age 10 Hobbies can provide many hours of relief from stress A hobby can bo