C. It provides doctors who may speak your native language.
D. It offers sufficient cash to pay the entire bill on the spot.
19. A. It must be purchased in one’s home country before going abroad.
B. It does not cover the minor medical expenses.
C. It only recommends native doctors when you are aboard. D. It features personal paying first and getting money later.
20. A. Consult other insurance companies.
B. Buy the student health insurance.
C. Get the international travel insurance.
D. Choose neither insurance since it is not a must.
II. Grammar and vocabulary Section A 10%
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Recreational Vehicles (房车): On the Road
Recreational vehicles (RVs) are a typically American invention. Nationally, sales rose to 430,000 units last year, a 40-year high. At the inexpensive end, they sell for as little as $5,000 for a caravan (大篷车); deluxe versions cost up to $1,000,000 and are typically equipped with a bedroom,
kitchen and bathroom that are bigger than ones in many European flats. The share prices of Thor Industries, the biggest RV-manufacturer in America, and Winnebago, the third-largest, (21) _ (rise) by 43% and 17%, respectively so far.
That is a big change. During the 2008-09 recession, notes Mr. Troiano, the owner of Continental RV, RV dealerships everywhere closed down, leaving his shop among the very few (22) (leave) serving the New York metropolitan area. Mr. Troiano is on track (23) (sell) more RVs this year than in any other since the early 2000s. The current rebound ( 反 弹 ) is mostly (24) the economy’s recovery, but it also springs from the fact that new types of customer are embracing the lifestyle.
A decade ago, the average age of an RV-owner was 49, and over 90% were white, says Kevin Broom of the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA), which doesn’t indicate a bright future. Another boost comes from sufficient immigrants, (25) are keen to experience long, self-planned road trips in America. Mr. Troiano’s most recent big sale was to (26) rich Asian family.
The industry hopes that its poor record with foreign sales — last year less
than 1% of RVs produced domestically (27) (ship) to foreign markets — may improve, too. China’s government, for example, has planned to build 2,000 campgrounds by 2020, up from an estimated 300 today, in a bid to promote domestic tourism, particularly to remote rural regions. Chinese firms such as Yutong Bus make RVs, but not of the quality that many Chinese want. The country imported 1,000 vehicles last year, over half of them American.
RV manufacturers are also marketing the concept (28) their motor homes can be commercial as well as leisure vehicles. They (29) allow travelling salesmen, businessmen to save on food and hotel costs. (30) you park it, it can be your office, as well as your home.
Section B 10%
Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. accompanied
F. distinguish
B. commercially G. funded H. measures
C. computerized
I. potentially
D. contents E. decline
J. processing K. respond
Training the Brain to Hear Better
The din （喧嚣）of a loud restaurant or party can make conversation
difficult for anyone —
but for the elderly, these settings can make it nearly impossible. The mechanics of hearing
31 with age, but the latest research focuses on another part of the problem — the slower 32 speed of aging brains, which have to work harder to translate sound into intelligible (可理解的) language.
Research shows that musicians are better able to pick out speech from surrounding noise as they age compared to non-musicians．And a new study of auditory training with a 33 _ available brain training program suggests that most people who are hard of hearing can develop the same skills．The scientists showed that people trained for 40 hours over 8 weeks with Posit Science’s “Brain Fitness” were able to pick out 41% more words from background noise compared to those who watched educational DVDs and were quizzed on their 34 after the same amount of time．The authors received no funding from the makers of the program; the study was 35 by the National Institutes of Health.
The research included 67 older adults between 55 and 70, with an average age of 63．The auditory training came in the form of 36 hearing tasks that primed the participants to hear better by requiring them to identify various speech sounds and 37 between similar
sounding syllables (音节), for example, as well as repeating back words and remembering stories．
Both those who received the training and those who watched the DVDs were tested on short term memory, brain processing speed and the ability to hear speech in noisy settings．All of the participants showed improvement in these three 38 , but for the first time, the scientists also documented that the sharper hearing was _39 by earlier signaling in the brainstem.
As the authors write in their paper, the training not only improved the ability to decode speech in noisy situations, but also sped up the brain’s ability to 40 to the sound — bringing it to more “youthful’’ levels．
III. Reading Comprehension Section A 15%
Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked
A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
Depression: Second Biggest Cause of Disability in the World
Depression is the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain, according to a review of research. The disease must be treated as a global public health 41 , experts report in the journal PLOS Medicine. The study 42 clinical depression with more than 200 other diseases and injuries as a cause of disability. Globally, only a small proportion of patients have 43 to treatment, the World Health Organization says.
Depression was 44 at number two as a global cause of disability, but its impact varies in different countries and regions. 45 , rates of major depression were highest in Afghanistan and lowest in Japan. In the UK, depression was rated at number three 46 years lived with a disability.