五、邀请信

　　Directions: You want to invite some friends to a party. Write an invitation letter to them individually:

　　1) Invite them to the party,

　　2) Elaborate on the reason why such a party should be held,

　　3) What activities will be arranged for them.

　　Dear Snoopy,

　　I am greatly honored to formally invite you to participate in Mr. Guo Jing’s wedding ceremony with Ms. Huang Rong to be held at Beijing Grand Hotel from 8 to 10 p.m. on April 1, 2007.

　　As you are a close friend of us, we would very much like you to attend the celebration and share our joy. The occasion will start at seven o’clock in the evening, with the showing of their wedding ceremony. This will be followed by a dinner party. At around ten, we will hold a small musical soiree, at which a band will perform some works by Bach and Strauss.

　　If you do not have any prior appointment on April 1, we look forward to the pleasure of your company.

　　Yours sincerely,

　　Li Ming

　　六、考试

　　Directions: For this part you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic My Views on Examinations. You should write at least 120 words and base your composition on the outline below:

　　1、 大学都用考试来衡量学生的成绩

　　2、 考生可能带来的副作用

　　3、 我对考试的看法

　　In most colleges and universities the examination is used as a chief means of deciding whether a student succeeds or fails in mastering a particular subject. Although it does the job quite efficiently, its side effects are also enormous.

　　To begin with, examinations lower the standards of teaching. Since teachers are often judged by examination results, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. No subjects can be taught successfully merely through being approached with intent to take examinations. In addition, the most undesirable effect is that examinations encourage bad study habits. As the examination score is the only criterion for his academic performance, a student is driven to memorize mechanically rather than to think creatively.

　　In fact, few of us admit that examinations can contribute anything really important to the students’ academic development. If that is the case, why cannot we make a change and devise something more efficient and reliable than examinations?