[单项选择]My grandmother has been ill for two months, so her health has ______ .
A. deteriorated
B. diminished
C. dwindled
D. lessened

[单项选择]--Do you know that Mr. Zhang has been ill for days
-- Yes. I wonder if he is ______ better now.
A. much
B. some
C. any
D. no

[单项选择]

Passage Two
American has long been considered the land of opportunity by those from other countries. Americans, too, believe that the United States provides almost limifiess opportunity for those who want to open businesses on their own.
Today, Americans are still fond of trying their hand at becoming small business people, even though only one out of two survives the first two years. Many of these people start their businesses for the wrong reasons: to get away from the paper work of their present jobs or to exchange the responsibility of their present jobs for freer life styles. But more, not less, paper work and responsibility come with ownership of a small business. John Shuttleworth, owner of the recently successful life-ecology news magazine Mother Earth, reports having had to work sixty hours straight in order to bring out the first issue.
John Shuttleworth waited years after conceiving the idea for Mother Earth before he attempted to put out
A. borrowed money
B. waited for a good time to open his business
C. developed an inadequate plan
D. studied, prepared a plan, and trained himself

[单项选择]Her ability has been doubtful after a number of ______.
A. failures
B. successes
C. fails
D. losers

[单项选择]My grandma has kept her _________refrigerator for thirty years.


A. first large grey American
B. first grey large American
C. first American grey large
D. large grey American first

[单项选择]Some new______she has bought for her new flat should be seen as well-designed.


A. furniture
B. property
C. possession
D. belongings

[单项选择]This factory has been ______ for two weeks.


A. open
B. opening
C. opened

[单项选择]"Maria has blisters in her boots."
"She ______ walking such a long distance."


A. was used not to
B. used to
C. is not used to
D. did not used to

[单项选择]My little brother has never been to Beijing, but it's the place ______ .

[单项选择]"Maria has blisters in her boots."
"She ______ walking such a long distance."


A. was used not to
B. used to
C. is not used to
D. did not used to

[单项选择]The sad news broke her ______and she has been in bad mood ever since.
A. feelings
B. head
C. heart
D. mind

[单项选择]My father has been on the______in this factory for nearly 20 years.
A. paypacket
B. payoff
C. payroll
D. payment

[单项选择]The dentist has decided to extract her had tooth.
A. take out
B. repair
C. pull
D. dig

[单项选择]

Text 3
Never has a straitjacket seemed so ill-fitting or so insecure. The Euro area’s "stability and growth pact" was supposed to stop irresponsible member states running excessive budget deficits, defined as 3% of GDP or more. Chief among the restraints was the threat of large fines if member governments breached the limit for three years in a row. For some time now, no one has seriously believed those restraints would hold. In the early hours of Tuesday November 25th, the Euro’s fiscal straitjacket finally came apart at the seams.
The pact’s fate was sealed over an extended dinner meeting of the euro area’s 12 finance ministers. They chewed over the sorry fiscal record of the Euro’s two largest members, France and Germany. Both governments ran deficits of more than 3% of GDP last year and will do so again this year. Both expect to breach the limit for the third time in 2004. Earlier this year the European Commission
A. sudden alarms.
B. substantial might.
C. extra efforts.
D. sheer reluctance.