Passage Two
Sydney recorded history began with the arrival of the First Fleet and its English criminals and soldiers on January 26, 1788. Transportation of criminals to Sydney did not stop until 1840 and shortly afterwards, in 1842, Sydney was declared a city. The population grew rapidly during this period, helped by the discovery of gold and the gold rush of 1850.
Sydney suffered little during WWII. After the war, European immigrants flooded into the city, and Sydney spread rapidly westwards. It also picked up one of its most famous landmarks in 1957. The architect Jorn Utzon won a competition to design the Sydney Opera House. In 1966, before the completion of the Opera House, Utzon resigned in frustration. Another architectural team took over, and the Opera House was opened in 1973.
During the Vietnam war, Sydney became a major resting stopover for US soldiers and an entertainment area developed by King’s Cross maintains to this day. The Bicentennial celebrations in 1988 and the massive Darling Harbour redevelopment project boosted the city’s development, and today the economy is doing well。
After winning the bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney put vast amounts of money into city construction and this is evident when walking through the city today. Nowadays Sydney has people from over one hundred countries. It has a population of nearly 4 million. The city provides excellent places to satisfy any visitor’s needs。
Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard。
29. When was Sydney declared a city?
30. Why did Sydney expand rapidly after WWII?
31. How long did it take to design and build the Sydney Opera House?
Passage Three
Some people have very good memories, and can easily learn quite long poems by heart. There are other people who can only remember things when they have said them over and over。
The famous English writer, Charles Dickens said that he could walk down any long street in London and then tell you the name of every shop he had passed. Many of the great men of the world have had wonderful memories。
A good memory is a great help in learning a language. Everybody learns his own language by remembering what he hears when he is a small child, and some children seem to learn two languages almost as easily as one. In school it is not so easy to learn a second language because the pupils have so little time for it, and they are busy with other subjects as well。
A man’s mind is rather like a camera, but it takes photos not only of what we see but of what we feel, hear, smell and taste. When we take a real photo with a camera, there is much to do before the photo is finished and ready to show to our friends. In the same way there is much work to be done before we can keep a picture forever in our minds。
Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us。