THE College Entrance Examination has been restored since 1977. The NMET has been constantly reformed in China to meet the need of educational development. As a subject of College Entrance Examination, English has been reformed. The contents and the structure of the English test paper have been adjusted time and time again according to the research results of language tests and the situation of educational reform in English in high schools. Based on these adjustments, the author thinks that the development of the College Entrance English Examination in the past three decades may be divided into approximately five periods.

1. 1978-1988

In 1978, the papers of the College Entrance Examination started to be made by the Ministry of Education. In the following ten years, the structure of the test paper was adjusted year by year. Based on the real situation of English teaching and the then examinees’ English level in high schools, test questions focusing on words and sentences had all been designed in NMET every year. The examination focused on English language knowledge primarily, but paid less attention to the ability of using language.

2. 1989-1995

In 1989, the college entrance examination papers in English started to be made according to the standardized request, and had its own English name: Matriculation English Test. The so-called "standardization" referred to each link in the test, including the design for the examination paper, the proposition, the service implementation in the test and score processing, was operated according to the unified standard and rules. At the end of 1988, the Ministry of Education test center published the first test instruction: Description for 1989 College Entrance English Examination.（《1989年高考英语科考试说明》）From then on, the Ministry of Education started to make papers according to the test instruction. In these years, multiple-choice questions became the main topic in the test paper. The ability of using language became the key point of the examination in the test paper, and "the written expression" started to be adopted.

In 1991, the Ministry of Education organized a group of experts who began to study how to referral the College Entrance Examination based on the high school general examination, and in the same year the new college entrance examination paper was promoted in Hunan, Hainan and Yunnan. The new college entrance examination paper in English was designed based on the original Matriculation English Test. Its English name is National Matriculation English Test. From 1991 to 1993, NMET papers and Matriculation English Test papers were used in different provinces, but the provinces in which NMET was used increased gradually. In 1994 NMET paper was used in the whole nation. Based on the Matriculation English Test, the following adjustment was carried out in the NMET paper: Firstly, the total score was adjusted to 150 score in the test paper. Secondly, "Word Spelling" took the place of "Word Stress" and "Sentence Rising and Falling Tone". Thirdly, "Error Correction" was introduced.

3. 1996-1999

To eliminate the drawbacks of the partial branches, in the second half of 1998, the Ministry of Education proposed the reform program of the college entrance examination subjects. In 1999 the program extended to the whole country gradually.

After the NMET paper was promoted, the Ministry of Education test center started to organize a group of experts to conduct the follow-up research on its service condition. After analyzing the situation of examinees’ papers and English teachers’ opinions in high schools, the researchers decided to adjust once more to the structure of the NMET paper. This adjustment included: firstly, word spelling in sentence level took the place of word spelling in word level; secondly, the number of cloze test in the grammar and vocabulary was reduced; thirdly, "The Complement to the Topic" was added. The transition from the word level to the sentence level and the transition from the sentence level to the passage level were the developmental direction for designing NMET. The result of the adjustment is that the percentage of the test questions in language knowledge in the whole test paper was decreased to a certain degree. The introduction of "The Complement to the Topic" may make up for the shortage that there were no listening and spoken English in the NMET suitably.

In 1999, the Ministry of Education organized 10 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and Peking University and so on more than 400 colleges and universities on a national scale to carry out the experimental work of online admission. At present, online admission of the College Entrance Examination has basically been popular.

4. 2000-2004

In January 2000, the spring and summer admissions of the College Entrance Examination were started in Beijing, Anhui and other provinces.

In 2000, the Ministry of Education test center provided the NMET paper which did not include the listening part, the NMET paper in which the listening part occupied 13% of the whole score and the NMET paper in which the listening part occupied 20% of the whole score for each province to choose. In 2001 and in 2002, only the NMET paper which included listening item was provided to the whole country. In some provinces where the conditions were not mature, the listening content might be removed voluntarily and the score of the rest test question might be processed. In 2003, if there were no special reasons, the NMET paper which included the listening part must be used in each province. Thus, in 2003 the NMET completed a leap both in the test content and the test form. The researchers once again adjusted the NMET paper structure based on the original NMET foundation in the need of increasing listening part. It mainly manifested in following aspects: Firstly, the pronunciation item was removed, but the listening part took its place. Secondly, the number of Cloze Test in the grammar and vocabulary was further reduced. Thirdly, "The Complement to the Topic" was removed. Fourthly, "Word Spelling" was removed.

5. 2005—

Since the listening part was increased in NMET, there have been many problems in NMET every year, such as the breakdown in listening facility, the magnetic tape questions, the mistakes made by the workers in organizing the NMET and so on. These problems affected the test security, stability and the authority of the NMET to a certain extent. Started from 2005, the listening part has no longer been made the national unified request to the examinees in the NMET. The educational administration departments in each province may decide the test form, time and scoring means of the listening part according to locally educational conditions and the results the examinees got in listening part were provided for the related colleges. The Ministry of Education test center decided to provide two kinds of NMET papers every year for the whole country to choose from: one with listening and the other without listening.

In 2004, curriculum reform was experimented in Shandong, Guangdong, Hainan and Ningxia provinces, but the participants in the experiment who would graduate from high schools in 2007 would participate in the College Entrance Examination. Therefore, the Ministry of Education carried out a reform of College Entrance Examination. Shandong and Guangdong provinces belong to the provinces making the Matriculation English Test paper autonomously. The Ministry of Education test center acted according to the requests of Hainan and Ningxia provinces and the spirit of English Curriculum Standard. The Ministry of Education test center carried out the following adjustment to the structure and the test contents of the NMET paper to adapt the examinees that were in the experimental areas: Firstly, the number of vocabulary was increased. Secondly, "Reading to Fill up" was added to reading comprehension. Thirdly, "Error Correction" was improved.

With the step-by-step promotion of high school new curriculum reform, the provinces and autonomous regions in which the new curriculum reform was carried out have been increased year by year. Jiangsu province was added in 2005. Tianjin, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Liaoning provinces and municipalities were added in 2006. There is a significant increase in candidates.

It has been 30 years since the resumption of College Entrance Examination in 1977. In the 30 years, the College Entrance Examination has been being transformed and developed in the dispute. The system of College Entrance Examination has been changed. With the demand of people access to higher education growing, diversified reform of College Entrance Examination has become increasingly rapid.

As one of the foreign language tests in the College Entrance Examination, English test has experienced great changes. Before, the English score was not added to the total score in the College Entrance Examination. Now, 100% of English score was added to the total score in the College Entrance Examination. The contents and the structure of the test paper are also being made the unceasing improvement according to the test policy and the request of elementary education reform in our country. Through several times great adjustments about the type of the questions and their quantity, English tests have gradually focused on the ability of using language rather than language knowledge. The test questions of the word level and the sentence level have gradually been transited to the passage level test questions. The authenticity of the provided language materials and the test task are paid more and more attention to. The test contents are day by day comprehensive. These changes result from the changes of the syllabus and teaching textbooks. It reflects: the change of English examination system is part of high school English teaching reform. English examination system and high school English teaching reform are consistent.