May the first is an important date in the college admission process in the United States. This is the last day for high school seniors to accept or reject offers of admission in the fall. But according to a recent report, there is a great change. Acceptance rates at the top colleges this year were lower than ever. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

      These days, college applicants are applying to more colleges because online and common applications make the process easier. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} On the other hand, deciding students for top colleges to accept can be difficult because it takes much time. Students may not like being put on waiting lists．Also, common colleges work more to getthe students they accept to accept them. Some colleges hold visiting days that offer a chance to attend classes and stay overnight. Some universities send gifts. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

      For many families, the most important thing colleges can do is show them the money, especially this year; the weak economymakes parents nervous. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The recent problems that spread from thehousing market to credit markets have even affected student's loans．Solately, top schools have to spare lots of money to increase their financial aidfor students.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}The Education Department expects the number of highschool graduates to start to go down. This will happen as the last of thechildren of the baby boom generation finish high school. Thenumber is not expected to start rising again until 2016.

A．Besides, top colleges are facing changesin the population.

B．What contributes to it?

C．But a mistake can be costly if ithappens.

D．But top colleges ignore them．.

E．They have international students whoknow English.

F．It can mean several acceptances tochoose from.

G．They cannot afford college as planned.

    Most animals have little connection with animals of a different kind, unless they hunt them for food. Sometimes, however, two kinds of animals come together in a partnership (伙伴关系) which is good for both of them. You may have noticed some birds sitting on the backs of sheep. This is not because they want a ride, but because they find easy food in the parasites (寄生虫) on sheep. The sheep allow the birds to do so because they remove the cause of discomfort. So although they can manage without each other, they do better together.

    Sometimes an animal has a plant partner. The relationship develops until the two partners cannot manage without each other. This is so in the corals(珊瑚) of the sea. In their skins they have tiny plants which act as “dustmen”, taking some of the waste products from the coral and giving in return oxygen which the animal needs to breathe. If the plants are killed, or are even prevented from receiving light so that they cannot live normally, the corals will die.

  增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在下面写出该加的词。

  删除：把多余的词用斜线（﹨）划掉。

  修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

Dear Sir/Madam,

    I'm one of your customer, I ordered a set of books on your website two weeks ago, but I didn't received it until yesterday. And much to my disappointment, the books were too poorly packed up that the cover of one book were torn. To make matters worse, it is not a complete set, as I found one book missed.

    I'm sorry to have received such poorly service, and I believe I have every right ask you to deal with this problem. I hope you either return my money back or deliver a new set of books to me. Beside, I'd like to be informed of the process of your deal with my complaint.

    I'm looking forward to your reply.

Li Hua

    Dubai(迪拜)is one of the economically richest places in the world. With its numerous malls, hotels, and beautiful beaches, Dubai has always been a popular holiday destination. This city was visited by around 5 million tourists each year. The government wanted to increase this number to 15 million. However, Dubai has only 45 miles of coastline, which is nowhere enough for so many people. To solve this problem, an island that looked like a palm tree was built in 2006, and named the Palm Jumeirah.

    The plan for the island was extraordinary. It was to host several hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and homes. Although the initial plan was to build the island from concrete(水泥), a decision was taken to create it from sand and gravel(砾石), so as to give it a natural look.

    To make sure that this project was a success, the best engineers from across the world were employed. Engineers from Holland formed the majority in this group. To begin with, the engineers calculated the strength of storms at sea, and also the expected amount of rise in water levels due to global warming. And then they found that, the proposed location for the island was neither very wide nor deep.

    One of the difficulties the engineers came across was to put sand on the sea bed to create the breakwater(防浪堤).Finding the right sand for the project was also a daunting task, as the sand from Dubai's deserts was too fine. Instead, sand from the sea was used, as it was coarser(粗糙). Once the breakwater was built, construction of the island began.

    The Palm Island are really impressive in terms of engineering. However, these projects are so large that they may have changed the ecology of the region. Also, an immense amount of money and resources go into maintaining the islands, which is a major concern at the moment. Only time will tell if building the Palm Islands was actually a good decision.

The summer I turned 16, my father gave me his car — a gift wasted on me at that age. The important thing was that Hannah and I could drive around.

    Hannah was my best friend, a year younger but much taller, almost five foot ten. "Hannah's a knockout," my mother always said. And that summer she signed with a modeling agency. She was already doing runway work.

    A month after my birthday, Hannah and I went to the movies. On the way home, we stopped at the McDonald's drive-through, putting the fries on the seat between us to share. "Let's ride around a while," I said. It was a clear night, full moon slung low over the desert. Taking a turning too fast, I plowed (撞)through a neighbor's wall and drove into a full-grown tree.

    We were taken in separate ambulances. I'd cracked(使裂开)my cheek bone; Hannah's forehead had split wide open. End of her modeling career. What would I say to her?

    When her mother, Sharon, came into my hospital room, I started to cry. She sat beside me and took my hand. "I rear-ended(追尾) my best friend when I was your age, "she said, "I totaled her car and mine."

    "I'm so sorry." I said.

    "You're both alive," she said, "The rest is window dressing. I forgive you. Hannah will too."

Sharon's forgiveness allowed Hannah and me to stay friends throughout high school and college, to be at each other's weddings … The scars are so faded that no one else would notice, but in the sunlight I can still see it just below her hairline — for me, a mark of grace(优雅).

    Having a great collection of books at home doesn't really mean that you are a person who loves reading. It may be got from your father or your father's father, and it can just impress people around you with the fact that you are a person of culture.

    From my point of view, reading is very important in our daily life. For example, reading is a way of gaining knowledge in different areas. It can help us have a great imagination, and it makes things easier when it comes to making compositions on different themes. It gives you the possibility to speak about science, even if you don't work in this field. You can express your opinions about a political event because you have read something about that.

    Secondly, reading gives us the possibility to enter the world of imagination. We can imagine what life will be like in the future. Sometimes, we compare ourselves with the people in the stories we read and they can give us some clues to solve the problems and tell us what to do in certain situations. Books are based on real life. Even if writers are considered to be somehow different from common people, they often face the same problems as we all do.

    In short, I would like to say that literature is the perfect way of enriching our culture, expressing correctly, having a rich vocabulary, being able to understand different fields and really being considered to be a learned person.